But, greatly to my astonishment, my watch-mate raised a rope’s-end which he held in his outstretched hand and proceeded to lay it across my shoulders; the beggar giving me several sharp cuts with the “colt” ere I realised what he was up to.
“That will teach you not to supplant me and go in my boat again, you young rascal!” he cried, pegging away merrily with the rope’s-end on my bare back. “I intend to give you one of the best thrashings you ever had in your life for doing it!”
“What do you mean?” I exclaimed, trying to ward off the cuts with my arm. “Anstruther, you’re mad, I think! I never wished to supplant you. It was the commander who would not let you go in the cutter, not I.”
“Oh, was it?” said he, ironically, still laying on as hard as he could with the rope’s-end, which really stung me very much. “Well, as I can’t lick him, my joker, I shall lick you!”
“Will you?” I retorted; and, finding expostulation of no avail, I tried retaliation, commencing now to hit out with my fists in return. “Two can play at that game, old fellow; and as you force me to do it, take that and that!”
My action followed suit to my words, as I gave him a smart “one, two” with my left, which knocked him backwards against Mr Stormcock just as the latter was coming out of the gunroom.
“Hullo, what is this?” cried the master’s mate, as Ned Anstruther, cannoned off his stomach, sending him flying across the deck from the ship lurching. “Fighting again? By jingo, I never saw such a pack of young gamecocks in my life. There was, cheeky little Tom Mills wanting to peg into that swab Andrews last night, and now here are you two at it hammer and tongs. Why, I thought you were chums and both of you in the same watch, the very closest of friends.”
“Of course we are,” said I, laughing at the comicality of the situation, which struck me all of a moment. “Anstruther and I are very good friends. I’m sure I don’t want to do him any harm.”
“So I should think,” replied Mr Stormcock, drily. “It looks uncommonly like it, judging by the way you are slogging each other about! But come now, I won’t have any more of this. Shake hands and make it up at once, do you hear, or I’ll report you to the commander.”
“Why,” exclaimed my antagonist, rubbing his eye ruefully, “Commander Nesbitt is the cause of it all!”