"Little sample of Southern hospitality, I expect," says I. "All they lack is a few ripe eggs and some garden confetti."
"I wonder if Auntie can hear?" giggles Vee. "Do you know what this makes me feel like? As if I were a person in a cartoon."
"You've said it," says I. "What I mind most, though, is that fresh gink with the searchlight. Say, Cap'n, why couldn't we turn ours loose at him as a come-back?"
"Go ahead," says Captain Lennon, throwin' a switch.
Say, that was a great little thought, for the Agnes has a high-powered glim, and when I swung it onto that excursion boat it made theirs look like a boardin'-house gas jet with the pressure low. You could see the folks blinkin' and battin' their eyes as if they was half blinded. Nest I picks up the pilot house and gives the man at the wheel the full benefit.
"Hey! Take off that light," he sings out. "I can't see where I'm runnin'. Take it off!"
"Switch off yours, then, you mutt," says I, "and run your cheap sandwich gang back where they belong under the hominy vines."
My, don't that raise a howl, though! They wanted to mob us for keeps then, and all sorts of junk begun to fly through the air. Then Cap'n Lennon took a hand.
"Sheer off there!" he orders, "or I'll turn the fire hose on yon."
Well, the excursion captain stayed long enough to pass the time of day, but when he saw the sailors unreelin' the hose he got a move on; and in half an hour we was lyin' quiet again in the moonlight.