But then, he had afterward made her a present of a beautiful string of pearls, and had thought at the time that the gift would cancel the obligation. Now, however, many doubts upon this subject passed through his mind, as he looked down upon the sweet, earnest face of the fair pleader, and listened to her beseeching voice.
He remained buried in reflection for some time, and then in order to put an end to his perplexity, turned to his companions, and solicited their opinion upon the all-important question.
An animated discussion between them—one which was kept up with unabated ardor for nearly a quarter of an hour—was the result; and then the dusky “lawyers” unanimously decided that the gift of pearls did not quite release Driko from his obligations to his pretty benefactress.
The islander promptly threw his hatchet aside, and implied, by a dignified motion of his hand to Alice, that he would spare her lover’s life.
“Me get out of de ‘tankee’ (thank you) in dis way,” said he, “and me no owe you any more. S’posee Marline makee me mad again, why den, habbing no more tankee, me killee, quick.”
“Well, blast me!” cried Stump, who had by this time recovered his senses, “that’s what I call a lubberly way of reasoning, although good enough, I suppose, for a pow-wow. But, I tell you what it is, blackskin—if you were only a little more than half civilized, you’d feel that you was under etarnal obligations to that gal for saving your hide. She’s a sort of omnipotent creatur’, she is, and the contrast atween her pretty skin and them tater (tattoo) marks upon yours, is wonderfully striking and pictur’sque! Besides—”
The mutineers did not give the shipkeeper an opportunity to conclude his observations. Two of them lifted him to his feet, and hurried him along to the main-hold, in which they bundled him without any ceremony. Marline was soon afterward transferred to the same quarter, and Alice was led back to her apartment—the door of which was then closed and locked.
“Well,” said Stump, as he rolled over upon his back after the hatch had been secured above the heads of the two prisoners, “here we are again, thrown into nearly the same situation as we was before. We ain’t made much progress in good luck, and as misfortunes never comes single, I suppose there’ll be more breakers presently. That Portuguese sarved me a most unmannerly trick sure enough, and if I ever get hold of his long head, I shall punch it of a sartainty. But, I’ve l’arned by it another lesson, which is that them that doesn’t look on both sides of a question, is pretty sure to get swamped.”
“Ay, ay,” responded Marline, “and I ought to have thought to caution you to be on your guard against that sneaking villain at the wheel. Do you suffer any from the effects of the blow?”
“I’ve a hard head,” replied the shipkeeper, “which has always been a distinguishin’ feature of the Stumps, and mine is peculiar in that way, seeing as I was much given to butting when I was a youngster, at school, a l’arning my letters. I didn’t make much progress in books on that account; I was always and etarnally a-having these butting matches with my little shipmates, and the more I butted, the harder my head grew, which is the reason, as I take it, that after awhile I couldn’t get any l’arnin’ into it. As a nat’ral consequence, the blow I got from the Portuguese—blast him—hasn’t affected my in’ard functions.”