A Warning Shock.
“Wa-all, I’m jiggered!” ejaculated Hiram, having recourse to his usual favourite expression when startled or surprised at anything, as the skipper, after evading Jan Steenbock’s pursuit, darted out of the cave and appeared on the scene, destroying the harmony of our happy meeting with Sam. “Keep yer haar on, cap, an’ don’t make a muss about nuthin’!”
Captain Snaggs, in response to this, made a gesture as if he were going to strike him.
“Ye durned rep-tile!” he yelled out. “I’ll soon knock the sass out o’ ye; I will so, by thunder!”
“No, ye don’t, cap; no, ye don’t,” said Hiram good-humouredly, putting up his fists to guard himself, but not doing so offensively. “I guess two ken play at thet game, I reckon, an’ ye’d best let me bide; fur, I’m a quiet coon when ye stroke me down the right way, but a reg’lar screamer when I’m riled, an’ mighty risky to handle, sirree, ez ye ken bet yer bottom dollar!”
“Jee-rusalem—this air rank mutiny!” exclaimed the skipper, starting back. “Would ye hit me, yer own cap’en?”
“No, cap; I don’t mean fur to go ez fur ez thet,”—replied the other, lowering his fists, but keeping his eye steadily on Captain Snaggs, the two looking at each other straight up and down—“not if yer doesn’t lay hands on me; but, if yer dew, why, I reckon I’ll hev to take my own part, fur I ain’t a-goin’ to be knocked about by no man, cap’en or no cap’en, ez we’re now ashore an’ this air a free country!”
“Snakes an’ alligators, this air a rum state o’ things!” cried the skipper, sobering down a bit at this reply, as well as awed by Hiram’s steadfast manner. “But, I don’t kinder wish to be at loggerheads with ye, my man, fur ye hev ben a good seaman right through the vy’ge, an I ken pass over yer sass, ez I don’t think ye means any disrespect.”
“Nary a cent, cap,” agreed Hiram to this; “nary a cent o’ thet.”
“But ez fur thet durned nigger thaar,” continued the skipper, foaming up with passion again on seeing Sam and Tom grinning together at his backing down so mildly before Hiram’s resolute attitude, neither of them, nor any of us indeed, recognising that he was in a state of delirium, “I’ll hev him an’ thet scoundrel of a carpenter in irons, an’ tried fur conspi-racy, I guess, when we git back to some civilised port.”