“No use, Master Scarrow,” said Sharkey. “Let us see you go down on your knees and beg for your life.”
“I’ll see you—” cried Scarrow, shaking his mouth clear.
“Twist his arm round, Ned. Now will you?”
“No; not if you twist it off.”
“Put an inch of your knife into him.”
“You may put six inches, and then I won’t.”
“Sink me, but I like his spirit!” cried Sharkey. “Put your knife in your pocket, Ned. You’ve saved your skin, Scarrow, and it’s a pity so stout a man should not take to the only trade where a pretty fellow can pick up a living. You must be born for no common death, Scarrow, since you have lain at my mercy and lived to tell the story. Tie him up, Ned.”
“To the stove, captain?”
“Tut, tut! there’s a fire in the stove. None of your rover tricks, Ned Galloway, unless they are called for, or I’ll let you know which one of us two is captain and which is quartermaster. Make him fast to the table.”
“Nay, I thought you meant to roast him!” said the quartermaster. “You surely do not mean to let him go?”