"I'm willing to do any necessary work, but I don't intend to wait upon you!" and Harry tried very hard to prevent his voice from trembling.
"That's jes' what you will do!" the man cried, as if beside himself with passion, and seizing a plate from the table he hurled it with better intent than aim directly at the boys, grasping another the instant the first had left his hands.
The second he did not throw, however. As the crockery was shivered into fragments against the companion-ladder, passing within an inch of Harry's head, Bob appeared at the hatchway.
"What's goin' on in here?" he asked sternly.
"Them boys were givin' us some of their impudence, an' I was showin' 'em the proper place aboard ship, that's all," the red-nosed man replied in a mild, friendly tone, as if he had simply been doing his host a favor.
"Look here, my friend," and it could be plainly seen that Bob was trying hard to control his temper. "It won't be well for you to show any one on this craft what his place is. We took you aboard believin' you were sailors an' starvin'; but we'll set the whole lot adrift mighty quick if I see any more of this kind of work." Then turning to the boys, he added, "Go on deck or stay here, as you choose; but don't play servant to a single person on the brig."
"I allow you're lookin' at this matter wrong," the thin man said in a conciliatory tone, as Harry and Walter ascended the companion-ladder. "We haven't said or done anything out of the way. How was we to know but they was the reg'lar cabin-boys, an' when they insulted us jes' 'cause we'd lost our vessel an' luck was agin us, we only did what you would."
As a matter of course, Bob was not absolutely certain but that there might be some truth in the man's statement, although from what he knew of Harry and Walter it did not seem probable; therefore he said, with less show of anger:
"We'll let the matter drop; but you must understand that the boys are to be treated as I am. The one who acts as cook has been to sea a little, and can stand harder work than the others, who were never on board a vessel before. Neither of 'em are to be bossed or scolded, for all do what they can willingly, an' I'm standin' right by 'em. Now that you've had somethin' to eat, an' ain't sufferin', what do you propose doin'?"
"You're short-handed, even if you had only the brig to look after; so what's to hinder our workin' a passage to sich port as you calculate on makin'?" and the red-nosed man spoke very humbly.