He grinned a little; but he was angry, too. “You better help me to a passage home,” he growled.
“Not much!”
“You’ll wish you had,” he declared. “I’ll write your mother and tell her just how you’ve treated me. I’ve had a hard time——”
And he actually acted and spoke as though he considered himself ill-used! I never in my life saw such a fellow. Always blaming somebody else for the troubles he brought upon himself. I was soon tired of listening to him.
“Come! stow all that!” I advised him. “You’re a member of the Scarboro’s crew, and you joined of your own free will. The only reason I see for my trying to get you away from here is to have you arrested and punished for getting hold of my money at Buenos Ayres. I could put you in bad for that. You be thankful you are away down here on the Scarboro, instead of at Buenos Ayres.”
“So you won’t help me get away?” he snarled.
“No, sir!”
“All right. You wait. You’ll be sorry.”
“Now, don’t threaten me any more,” I returned. “I hope this voyage will do you some good. I think you’ll learn something before the Scarboro reaches New Bedford again. We’ll hope so, anyway.”
He only snarled at me as I passed on. I had just as little to do with him as possible while I remained aboard the bark. We were at Punta Arenas in a few hours, and the very next morning the bark was warped in beside the tramp steamer and the oil in the whaler’s tanks was being pumped aboard the steamship. The men were given short shore leave; but Captain Rogers put Paul Downes in the care of Bill Rudd, the carpenter, and made him responsible for him.