I deemed it advisable to make no answer.
"I'll teach you to insult your betters!" he continued, as he rushed forward, with arms extended, ready to wreak his vengeance upon me.
I was satisfied that the blow was to come with the word, and I slung the poker over my shoulder, in the attitude of defence.
"Hold on, Captain Fishley!" I replied.
He had evidently not expected any such demonstration. He had no occasion to suspect it, for previously I had been uniformly submissive, not only to him and his wife, but even to Ham, which had always been a much harder task. The tyrants halted, and gazed at me with a look of stupefied astonishment.
"What are you going to do with that poker?" asked the captain, after a long breath, in which much of his wrath seemed to have evaporated.
"Defend myself," I replied.
"Do you mean to strike me with that poker?"
"Not unless you put your hands on me or my sister. If you touch me, I'll knock you down, if I have to be hanged for it," was my answer, deliberately but earnestly uttered.
"Has it come to this?" groaned he, completely nonplussed by the vigorous show of resistance I made.