Forder nodded.
'Damn young ass,' he said, 'but, Arizona, let him down light. If any one shoots him, he'll be hung. This is a British ship, and he'll be tried at Cape Town, not in Tombstone.'
'If he fell overboard,' said Arizona, 'there's seventy of us here to try. He don't know what dynamite he's monkeyin' with.'
'That's so,' said Forder, 'he don't know, and might be taught. You're the top dog in this crowd, ain't you?'
'I might be,' said Arizona cautiously.
'And you'd oblige me if you could?'
'I would, you're a white man,' said Arizona, 'even if you are an Englishman.'
Forder, who thoroughly understood the Western attitude towards Englishmen, took no notice of the last part of Arizona's declaration.
'Then treat him like the baby that he is.'
'Eh, what, smack him, for instance?' said Arizona eagerly.