“I must be cautious lest I bankrupt myself by telling all I know this evening,” said Adam. “Indeed, dear friends, it grows late already. I must set my beef-eaters the good example of keeping seemly hours.” He arose to go before the sunken treasure topic should again break out, with its many fascinations and pitfalls.
His hosts protested against his leaving, yet they presently discovered that the hour was, as he said, no longer early. He therefore departed and wended his way through the now deserted streets, toward the Crow and Arrow, his heart bounding with joyousness, his brain awhirl with memories of everything of the evening, save the discussion of the sunken treasure.
CHAPTER V.
A WEIGHTY CONFIDENCE.
At the tavern, when Adam entered, Halberd had succumbed to a plethora of comfort, which had followed too soon on the paucity thereof, which had been the program of the three for many weeks. He was snoring fiercely in a corner. Pike, on the other hand, was inflated with life and activity of speech. He was bragging eloquently, not only of his own prowess, but also of that of Halberd and Adam as well.
Adam heard the end of a peroration of self-appraisement in which the doughty Pike announced that one of his recent feats had been the slaying of two murderous, giant pirates with his naked fists.
Among the sailors, dock-hands and tavern-loafers who made up the auditors who were being entertained by these flights of narrative, was a little, red-nosed, white-eyed man of no significance, who now stood up and removed his coat.
“If you would like to have a bit of fun with me,” said he. “I’ll play one of those pirates, till we see what you can do.”
Pike looked at him ruefully, rubbing his chin while thinking what to answer to this challenge. He then waved his hand, grandly.
“Good sir,” he said, “the Sachem, my honored associate, has such an appetite for these encounters that until he shall be satisfied I would have no heart to deprive him of such good material as I can see you would make for a fight. Doubtless I can arrange for him to do you the honor you seek, after which I shall be pleased to weep at your funeral.”