Angry though Captain Doak was, he could understand without too great a mental effort that the odds were against him.
"If you think you can carry matters with sich a high hand, Ben Johnson, keep on tryin', an' before you're many days older I'll show you what claim I've got on that idle, worthless Sam. You've run agin the wrong man when you tackle me, an' I'll straighten out things on this 'ere island if I never wet another line this season."
"An' I'm tellin' you, Eliakim Doak, that you shall answer to the law for trespass. I've warned you off this place, an' you've stayed to threaten, so it's time I found out who's master here," Uncle Ben replied, his face pale with anger, but his voice calm and low.
Just for one moment Captain Doak lingered, as if to decide whether there was yet a possibility of his overcoming the small army opposed to him, and then, shaking his fist in impotent rage, he walked slowly away to where the "Sally D.'s" dory lay with her bow on the beach.
Uncle Ben followed slowly, the boys trailing on behind him, and not until the fisherman had pulled off to the schooner was any word spoken by those on the island. Then the old lobster catcher said with a sigh, which might have been one of regret:
"I've lived here nigh to thirty years, off an' on, an' this is the first time I've had a hard word with man or boy. I reckon Eliakim an' I have declared war now, though, an' it stands me in hand to keep my weather eye open, for he ain't the kind of a man who's given to fair fightin'." Then, turning suddenly upon Sam, he asked, pointing toward Tom, "Where did that lad come from, an' what made you try to take a hand in the row?"
"We couldn't stand still an' see Cap'en Doak jump on you," Sam replied quickly, and then, in the fewest possible words, he told of Tom's rescue, giving to himself very little credit for what had been done in the way of saving life.
"It begins to look as if the good Lord was bound I should carry out the plan I've been turnin' over in my mind these many years," Uncle Ben said slowly, as if thinking aloud, and when Sam asked for an explanation of the words he added: "Get inter the shanty, lads; there's no good reason why you should stay outside here where the sight of you will only make Eliakim Doak worse. We'll talk this over later, when we've got more time. Now it stands me in hand to make ready for a trip to town."
"To town, Uncle Ben!" Sam cried as if in alarm. "If you go while the 'Sally D.' is layin' here, Cap'en Doak will come ashore an' serve me out terribly."
"I'm allowin' the two of us could make it mighty hot for him if he tried any funny business," Tom interrupted, and from the tone of his voice one would have said that it would give him no little pleasure to try conclusions with the commander of the "Sally D."