'We'd better cut,' said the clerk. ''E's no good.'
'Well,' said the musician deliberately, 'one can't most generally always tell. I'll try it on, I guess. Music has charms to soothe the savage Tapena, boys. We might strike it rich; it might amount to iced punch in the cabin.'
'Hiced punch? O my!' said the clerk. 'Give him something 'ot, captain. “Way down the Swannee River”; try that.'
'No, sir! Looks Scotch,' said the captain; and he struck, for his life, into 'Auld Lang Syne.'
Captain Tom continued to approach with the same business-like alacrity; no change was to be perceived in his bearded face as he came swinging up the plank: he did not even turn his eyes on the performer.
'We twa hae paidled in the burn
Frae morning tide till dine,'
went the song.
Captain Tom had a parcel under his arm, which he laid on the house roof, and then turning suddenly to the strangers: 'Here, you!' he bellowed, 'be off out of that!'
The clerk and Herrick stood not on the order of their going, but fled incontinently by the plank. The performer, on the other hand, flung down the instrument and rose to his full height slowly.
'What's that you say?' he said. 'I've half a mind to give you a lesson in civility.'