"Can any of you pirate scum speak English?" he demanded truculently.
"I have that privilege, sir," replied a swart-faced lieutenant.
"Then kindly inform your friends that at the first sign of any monkey trick I'll send you all to kingdom come."
The officer complied presumably with this command, and when he had finished, addressed Maclean:
"You cannot intend to maroon us, sir?" he cried. "The island yonder is totally uninhabited."
"You're a liar!" retorted Maclean. "Fires don't light themselves. Look yonder."
The officer choked back an oath. "Have a care what you are doing, sir," he muttered in a strangled voice. "This will lead to a war between your country and mine."
"I guess not—not even if I hanged the lot of you—you dirty pirates. But if it did, what then?"
"You should see, sir."
"And so would you—see that Englishmen can fight a durned sight better than the Japs. I guess you know how they fight by this."