I am willing to
believe that it was not intentional on your part, but either the outcome
of a drunken freak or else a means of escaping from some scrape you have
got into ashore. That being so, I shall take a merciful view of it, and
if you behave yourself and make yourself useful you will not hear
anything more of it. He has something the look of a seafaring man, Mr.
Prowle. See what you can make of him."
"Come along with me, my lad," said the grinning Mr. Prowle, tapping him
on the shoulder.
The captain turned with a snarl, and, clenching his huge, horny fist, let
drive full in the other's face and knocked him off his feet.
"Take that man for'ard," cried Captain Hardy, sharply. "Take him
for'ard."
Half-a-dozen willing men sprang forward. Captain Nugent's views
concerning sailormen were well known in Sunwich, and two of the men
present had served under him. He went forward, the centre of an
attentive and rotating circle, and, sadly out of breath, was bestowed in
the forecastle and urged to listen to reason.
For the remainder of the morning he made no sign. The land was almost
out of sight, and he sat down quietly to consider his course of action
for the next few weeks. Dinner-time found him still engrossed in
thought, and the way in which he received an intimation from a
good-natured seaman that his dinner was getting cold showed that his
spirits were still unquelled.
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