"Come here, you Mickey!" he called, in tones meant to be reassuring, "and peel ze potatoes."
With a good deal of caution the boy reluctantly approached, but stopped just out of the cook's reach for a parley.
"Wot ye goin' ter do wit' me whin ye git holt uv me?" he queried. "I wuz only foolin' wit' ye before. Can't ye take a little joke?"
"Nevaire mind," replied the cook realizing his advantage. "Come an' get beezy, else I tell ze captain you air—wat you call eet?—inzubordinate. Zen he make you come."
The boy glanced desperately around in search of some way of escape from his predicament, but finding none finally went reluctantly into the cottage.
"Here's where retribution falls on him," said Frank with a grin.
He was not mistaken, for the boy had scarcely entered when there issued forth the sound of several lusty smacks. Then came a high-pitched scolding which showed that Anatole had had recourse to moral as well as physical suasion.
"I don't know but what I'd rather have the licking than the scolding," chuckled Bart as they listened to the voluble eloquence of the chef.
"Either one's bad enough," laughed Frank. "I guess our young red-headed friend has got all that was coming to him."
Now the intensive training of the boys began in earnest. And training now had a meaning that it had never had while they were still on American soil.