“Ho, ho!” he burbled when he saw that I had caught sight of him. “An’ where away now, m’ bucko?”
I passed a hand over my features, and my question was trite enough:[Pg 44]
“Where am I?”
Again merriment rippled in folds up and down him as he replied:
“On board the Ruby Light, m’ lad, and a better vessel’s keel was never laid!”
“Ruby Light?” I echoed hesitatingly, for a bit of mistiness still held me. “Why, I thought—that is——”
“That is,” he rumbled gleefully, “this here’s about the last place you expected ter come ter life in. An’ mebbe it are jest about the last place you’d ’a’ picked out. He, he! Shouldn’t wonder, m’ lad, shouldn’t wonder!” And he drifted off into a falsetto titter.
But there certainly was no malice in his merriment; it seemed rather to make me a comrade.
“But how in thunder did I get here?” My voice was putting on more heartiness. “And who——”
“Hold on, now Billy-boy! One at a time, and slow,” he chided. “As to the how and the who, why—I m’self was the who; an’ a good long boat hook was the how. Managed ter ketch under the belt as you slid by our quarter during said episode last night. An’, by time, boy, you were heavier’n you look, shore!”