"I've seen your tracks at the Port, so let me tell you, Ben Johnson, that if I couldn't launch the 'Sally' without your help, I'd leave her to rot where she is!"
Uncle Ben was not so thick-headed but he could understand that it would be worse than useless to attempt to hold friendly converse with Captain Doak while he was in such a humor, therefore he went slowly back to the shanty, looking as if in deep distress.
"I hope he'll never get her off!" Tom cried angrily when he and the old man were so far from the captain that there could be no danger his words would be heard by the owner of the schooner. "He acts like a great big chump!"
"There's no call to say anythin' harsh, Tom," Uncle Ben said reprovingly. "He allers used to be a pleasant-spoken man till he got into bad habits. I reckon he'll be glad of our help before he finishes the job that's to be done, an' when that time comes we'll turn to jest as willin'ly as if he'd shown himself to be the best friend we ever had. I'm hopin', lad, that this 'ere family I'm tryin' to get together will allers do as they'd be done by, for it's the one mighty good rule in this world."
CHAPTER XI
"FOR SALE"
Although Uncle Ben appeared so ready to find excuses for Captain Doak's surliness, Tom Falonna was not disposed to let the matter drop, as if it were no more than an ordinary incident, but, on his return to the shanty, told Mr. Rowe and Sam of the meeting, and what had passed between the two men, adding in conclusion:
"'Cordin' to my way of thinkin', there's sich a thing as bein' too good for this 'ere world, an' that's what's ailin' Uncle Ben. What he oughter done was to up an' hit that pirate a clip under the ear, so's to give him a lesson in manners. I only wish his schooner had to lay there on the sand till I lent a hand toward gettin' her off! You can bet real money that she'd rot there!"
"After all that's been done an' said, I ain't got it in my heart to do a friendly turn for Eliakim Doak," Mr. Rowe added thoughtfully. "I'd heard considerable 'bout him before I agreed to fish aboard the 'Sally D.' this season; but I never allowed he, nor any other man for that matter, could be so downright mean an' ugly as he'd showed hisself. I'd had it in mind to leave him the very minute I could get some little part of what was due me for wages; but when Sam stirred up things, I come to believe that dollars didn't count very big when it meant stayin' aboard the schooner any longer. My biggest hope now is that he'll float her mighty sudden, for the sooner that's been done the quicker we'll get rid of him."
"It won't seem as if we'd really been made over inter a family till he has left the island for good an' all," Sam said emphatically, as he straightened up from his work of frying fish to look over his shoulder apprehensively toward the beach. "It's dead certain he'll be on the watch for a chance to get hold of me once more, no matter how much Uncle Ben threatens, an' I'll have cold chills just so long as he hangs 'round here."