“Say, you got a helluva lotta spirit, ain’t you?” he grinned in my face.
“You killed my fish. I’ll kill you, do you hear? You just wait!”
“Now be a nice little girl and don’t get your temper up and I’ll give you a big box of candy.”
I was young enough for the prospect of candy to be a pacifier for any woe. My father never let me have any, and the rare occasions when the sailors sneaked it to me made me regard heaven as the place where you got all the candy you wanted.
Wiping away my tears with a fishy hand I forced a smile.
“I bet you ain’t got any candy,” I challenged him.
“Well, don’t you squeal to Stitches or the Old Man, and I’ll give you a whole box just for yourself.”
I promised him I wouldn’t betray him, and he went forward to get it. I twisted up my fish line in a neat coil while I waited for him. Presently I saw him coming aft with something concealed behind his back.
“Where is it?” I asked, a bit suspicious that he was only fooling me.
Svenson looked up the deck to make sure no one was watching him.