"You jes' wait," he muttered, seating himself on an empty mess-kid where he could nurse his sore face. "You jes' wait an' see if I don't fix the whole crowd! Talk about bein' sailors an' then cuffin' the cook when you're goin' to eat aft! I'll bet not one of them villains knows how to reef a jib, an' before they leave this vessel I'll show what I can do."
It is not probable that Jim had any very clear idea as to what kind of punishment he would mete out to this man who had struck him without provocation; but he believed an opportunity of avenging his wrongs would present itself in the near future, and this thought had a wonderfully soothing effect.
Harry and Walter, as attendants upon the guests, were treated with no more consideration than that shown Jim. When the men seated themselves at the table, both boys went toward the companion-way as if to go on deck; but the thin man cried gruffly:
"Stay here, you young cubs! We may need somethin' more, an' in that case you're to bring it!"
Just for an instant Harry glanced at Walter, as if questioning whether they should obey, and then, evidently concluding discretion was the better part of valor, he retreated to one corner of the cabin, where he would be ready to obey the commands of these strange guests.
During the next ten minutes the men ate voraciously--not as if they had been on the verge of starvation, but like pigs; and at the end of that time he with the red nose asked, as he rested both elbows on the table and picked his teeth with a fork:
"Where does this brig hail from?"
"I don't know," Walter replied, after waiting in vain for Harry to speak.
"Don't know? Haven't you got sense enough to tell where you come from?"
"We belong in New York. While we were at the Isle of Shoals, Jim and Harry and I rowed out to the brig, and found her abandoned. Then the wind sprung up and she ran away with us."
"Where did the old sailor come aboard?" the man asked, after exchanging glances with his companions.
Walter told him in the fewest possible words how Bob had become a member of the party, and also in what condition the Sea Bird was when Joe linked his fortunes with theirs.
"How happened it that you run ashore here?" the Mexican asked, and this question Harry answered.
"Then you've got no more right aboard this craft than we have," the first speaker said, "an' I reckon we'll stick by the ship. Do you know where there's any tobacco?"
"No, I haven't seen a piece except that which Bob has."
"Then hunt for some. In a well-found craft like this there's sure to be plenty."
"We don't know anything about it, and do not intend to look!" Harry said decidedly, as he retreated toward the companion-way, taking up his stand directly in front of Walter.
"I'll have to give you a lesson, the same's I did the other fellow!" the red-nosed man cried in an angry tone. "Are you goin' to obey orders?"
"I'm willing to do any necessary work, but I don't intend to wait upon you!" and Harry tried very hard to prevent his voice from trembling.
"That's jes' what you will do!" the man cried, as if beside himself with passion, and seizing a plate from the table he hurled it with better intent than aim directly at the boys, grasping another the instant the first had left his hands.
The second he did not throw, however. As the crockery was shivered into fragments against the companion-ladder, passing within an inch of Harry's head, Bob appeared at the hatchway.
"What's goin' on in here?" he asked sternly.
"Them boys were givin' us some of their impudence, an' I was showin' 'em the proper place aboard ship, that's all," the red-nosed man replied in a mild, friendly tone, as if he had simply been doing his host a favor.
"Look here, my friend," and it could be plainly seen that Bob was trying hard to control his temper. "It won't be well for you to show any one on this craft what his place is. We took you aboard believin' you were sailors an' starvin'; but we'll set the whole lot adrift mighty quick if I see any more of this kind of work." Then turning to the boys, he added, "Go on deck or stay here, as you choose; but don't play servant to a single person on the brig."
