I do not mean to say that I never got mad; only that, when I had a fair chance to think an instant, I nerved myself to a degree of self-possession which enabled me to avoid doing stupid things. Such was my frame of mind on the present occasion, and I coolly awaited the coming of the tyrants. Both of them were boiling over with wrath when they entered the kitchen, and rushed towards me so fiercely that I thought they intended to overwhelm me at a single blow.
"What does all this mean, Buck? What have you been doing?" demanded Captain Fishley, as soon as he had crossed the threshold of the room.
"I'll teach you to insult your betters!" he continued, as he rushed forward, with arms extended, ready to wreak his vengeance upon me.
I was satisfied that the blow was to come with the word, and I slung the poker over my shoulder, in the attitude of defence.
He had evidently not expected any such demonstration. He had no occasion to suspect it, for previously I had been uniformly submissive, not only to him and his wife, but even to Ham, which had always been a much harder task. The tyrants halted, and gazed at me with a look of stupefied astonishment.
"What are you going to do with that poker?" asked the captain, after a long breath, in which much of his wrath seemed to have evaporated.
"Do you mean to strike me with that poker?"
"Not unless you put your hands on me or my sister. If you touch me, I'll knock you down, if I have to be hanged for it," was my answer, deliberately but earnestly uttered.
"Has it come to this?" groaned he, completely nonplussed by the vigorous show of resistance I made.
"I think it is time something was done," he added, glancing around the room, apparently in search of some weapon.
"I think so too, and I am going to do something, if need be."
"If you want to talk, I'll talk. I wish you to understand that I'm just as cool as well-water, and this thing has gone just as far as it's going to."
"What do you mean by that, you scoundrel? What thing?"
"My sister Flora is a poor, weak, sick child. She isn't your servant, nor your wife's servant; and she shall not be kicked round by either one of you. That's all I have to say."
"Who has kicked her round?" growled the captain.