"So you and your comrade are eager for a taste of boat-work?"
I could do no less than agree with him after all the fine speeches I had made to my cousin; and he said, as if believing he was doing me a wonderful favor:—
"When the boat crews are called away, you two lads will take your places alongside me. I have promised Mr. McKnight to have an eye out on you bloodthirsty youngsters, and it won't be my fault if he doesn't hear exactly how you behaved under fire."
If I had not been on the quarter-deck I believe of a verity I should have groaned; as it was I said to my miserable self that if we caught it very hot, my cousin would wish I had never been born.
I thanked the lieutenant in a shaky voice, and, saluting, went forward to wreak my vengeance on Phil for having persuaded me into such a scrape when there was no sense in it.
I changed my mind very quickly after joining the lad; he, like me, had grown faint-hearted now the opportunity for hot work was close at hand, and I knew by the expression on his face that he regretted, as did I, having made any such foolish request.
"I suppose we've got to go," he said in a faint tone; and the contrast between his manner now and when I first told him what my cousin had promised, was so comical that I could not keep my face straight. "It's all very well for you who are really brave," he continued, believing from the smile on my face that there was no fear in my heart; "but I don't think I want to go."
Since he had given me the credit of being brave when, as a matter of fact, I was more cowardly even than he, I did not propose to undeceive him, but said as stoutly as possible:—
"You can't back out now, Phil, else every man on board will set you down for the veriest kind of a coward."
"That's just what I am," he whispered, and again I laughed, this time because I had earned the reputation of being stout-hearted when any lamb would have outclassed me in that respect.