“Yah! I s’pose you think you’re funny, the whole of you!” rasped Piper, whose sense of humor, if he had any, was doubly dulled by the fact that the joke was on him. “I s’pose you’ve got to have somebody to pick on, but don’t rub it in too hard. That’s all I’ve got to say: don’t rub it in too hard. Many a man, driven desperate by similar treatment, has risen in his wrath and given his torturers just cause to rue their rashness.”
“Look aout for Sleuthy,” warned Crane. “Don’t forget that we’re in the land of the bloodthirsty Wampanoags, and if we drive him to desperation mebbe he’ll turn renegade and betray us into the hands of murderous redskins.”
“That,” observed the Texan soberly, “would be right bad for us. I know,” he added reminiscently, “for didn’t I have an experience with painted Indians shortly after coming to Oakdale? Why, they even tried to burn me to the stake.”
“And by sus-so doing,” declared Springer, “they made a mistake, as they afterwards found out. I ought to know, for I was one of those redskins.”
Crane breathed a sigh, rubbed his hand over his stomach and gazed regretfully at the remnants of the fried fish.
“I declare,” he confessed, “I didn’t cal’late when Stoney was cookin’ them that there’d be half enough for us, but now I’m chock full, and I’ll be switched if there ain’t goin’ to be some scraps left.”
“Mighty small scraps,” laughed Grant. “I think we’ve cleaned things up pretty well. But if Phil and I hadn’t made this catch we’d fared rather slim, with Duckelstein failing to bring the provisions he promised to have here bright and early.”
“I don’t sus-suppose that sleepyhead is awake yet,” said Phil, moving back in a manner which indicated that he had finished. “We’ll be lucky if he gets our canoe over from Pemstock today.”
“With plenty of fish in these pellucid waters,” said Piper, whose spirits seemed to be reviving, “there’s no reason why we should perish of hunger, even though the pack train of provisions is delayed.”
“I guess that’s right,” chuckled Crane. “We mustn’t forgit that we have in aour midst an angler we can rely on when all others fail. Sleuthy ain’t had a chance yet to demonstrate his ability in that line.”