“Ho! ho! ho!” roared the captain. “That’s as good as a fair breeze arter a c’am. But avast thar, lads, how come you ter be in such a pickle?”
Rob, whose throat still showed the red marks where Dugan’s fingers had clutched, hastily explained, being frequently interrupted by the captain with exclamations of:
“Belay thar! The deck-swabbing, land-lubbers! Heave ahead!” and “Douse my glimmering sidelights!”
“Wall,” opined the captain, when Rob had concluded, “I reckon them fellers is off on a long cruise. They shore did heave their anchors sudden. The worst of it is my bees has gone with ’em, and I’m generally mighty partic-lar who my bees associates with.”
But it was now the captain’s turn to explain how he came to be on the road between Hampton and the isolated De Regny place at such an opportune moment. It appeared that the lone recluse of Topsail Island had been to the distant farm of a friend of his to aid him in wintering some bees. He had taken a hive of his own honey makers with him to obviate the chance of being stung by the strangers.
“Bees won’t attack any one they knows, or who they has an introduction to,” he explained. “Now you see them bees wouldn’t touch any of you boys. Now then, that’s——”
“Ouch!” exclaimed Tubby suddenly, clapping one hand to the back of his neck.
“Belay thar, lad, what’s in yer rigging?” demanded the captain anxiously, rising from the broken box which he had set down in the road and had been using as a seat.
“I—I think it’s a bee,” rejoined the stout youth. “I—I’m sure it is, in fact. Wow! there’s another!”
The lad began dancing about as if he were on springs.