“Pashy!” roared the Captain, whom the sight of his charmer's tears had driven almost wild, “don't say another word. I'll save them hens or git cooked along with 'em!”
And turning up his coat collar, as though he was going into a refrigerator instead of a burning building, Captain Perez sprang through the door.
Miss Davis screamed wildly to him to come back, and danced about, wringing her hands. The interior of the henhouse was now a mass of black smoke, from which the voices of the Captain and the Leghorns floated in a discordant medley, something like this:
“Hold still, you lunatics! ('Squawk! squawk!') Druther be roasted than have me catch you, hadn't you? ('Squawk! squawk!') A—kershew! Land! I'm smothered! NOW I've got you! Thunderation! Hold STILL! HOLD STILL, I tell you!”
Just as the agonized Miss Patience was on the point of fainting, the little window at the back of the shanty was thrown open and two hens, like feathered comets, shot through it. Then the red face of the Captain appeared for an instant as he caught his breath with a “Woosh!” and dived back again. This performance was repeated six times, the Captain's language and the compliments he paid the hens becoming more picturesque every moment.
At length he announced, “That's all, thank goodness!” and began to climb through the window. This was a difficult task; for the window was narrow and, in spite of what Captain Eri had called his “ingy-rubber” make up, Captain Perez stuck fast.
“Catch hold of my hands and haul, will you, Pashy?” he pleaded. “That's it; pull hard! It's gittin' sort of muggy in behind here. I'll never complain at havin' cold feet ag'in if I git out of this. Now, then! Ugh! Here we be!”
He came out with a jerk, like a cork out of a bottle, and rolled on the ground at his lady's feet.
“Oh, Perez!” she exclaimed, “are you hurt?”
“Nothin' but my feelin's,” growled the rescuer, scrambling upright. “I read a book once by a feller named Joshua Billin's, or somethin' like it. He was a ignorant chap—couldn't spell two words right—but he had consider'ble sense. He said a hen was a darn fool, and he was right; she's all that.”