"I should hope they'd wash him first," said the Captain, "if I was to have any of the pie."
I could only adjudge the Skipper's seeming lightness of vein to the fact that he had escaped death often just by the breadth of a hair, and I was convinced that he would never believe that his final hour had come until he was no longer conscious of the beating of his heart.
Our guard was called upon to translate the Minion's words. The lad had not caught sight of us at first, but when the Skipper gave an exclamation of horror at the probable fate of this poor boy, preceding ours by but a short time, he looked toward us with a grin upon his face.
The Skipper had apparently given up all thought of trying to please our captors.
"Boy," called he, "say a prayer, do, for the Lord's sake! Those devils are going to kill you. Shall I pray for you?"
The Minion glared at his persecutors. Consistent to his well-known character, he called across the heads beneath him, "I'll ha'nt 'em!" And then again, with a loquacity of which he was seldom guilty, he repeated, "I'll ha'nt 'em to the last!"
The Papaloi looked angry at this interruption, but the Skipper thought it now of little use to temporize with the wretches.
"Boy," he shouted, "you have but a moment to live, and I s'pose you're human. Is there any sin that you've committed that you want to confess? Any whom you have wronged? Any——"
But the Skipper stopped short, for as he spoke the Minion put his hand into the pocket of his ragged old trousers, slowly drew it forth, and held up in the face of the astounded Skipper the lost ring. I saw my advantage at once. I think that I heard the now loquacious Minion declaring truthfully, "'Tain't no use to me;" but I had broken through the crowd and was close to the step of the throne before the Papaloi had realized what was happening. I had mounted to the very platform of the throne itself, regardless of the outraged looks of the Papaloi, and, standing there, I held up the ring before the eyes of the dazed multitude.
"Look and believe," shouted I, "the ring of the Grand Papaloi!"