“A lie!” shouted the now infuriated Bill. “I wuz asleep in the boat an’——”
He paused for breath.
“Asleep when yuh wuz supposed to be on duty,” his partner completed the sentence for him. “That’s the trouble with you, Bill. You don’t pay no ’tention to nothin’. Yuh don’t use your brains; yuh don’t look; yuh don’t listen. Yuh go ’round dreamin’, with your head up in the air an’ your intelligence in the seat o’ your pants. An’,” Thomas completed his lecture defiantly, “I won’t take that back neither.”
The conversation had reached a critical, dangerous stage, and the man in the frayed uniform thought it wise to intervene.
“If you’ll pardon me, gentlemen, I believe I can settle this dispute. I’ve been thinking it over, and the more I think about it, the more clearly it appears to me that the responsibility is all mine. It was my shout that startled both of you, that put you off—that caused all the trouble. I’d like to apologize.”
“It wuz a terrible shout,” admitted Thomas.
“Sounded like the howl of a madman,” declared Bill. “But yuh saved our lives an’ that’s somethin’ I won’t forget in a hurry. We’d be down in the bottom of the river now, keepin’ company with our rifles an’ our grub-stake, if it hadn’t been for you.”
The man in the uniform acknowledged the compliment with a somewhat weary smile.
“I’m afraid I saved you from one disaster only to plunge you into another. What are you going to do now?”
“Jus’ what do yuh mean?” asked Bill.