"I never allow anyone to get ahead of me without paying for my own stupidity. Do you go to Sunday School, and church, and missionary meetings?" asked the captain, with a sneer.
"I thought so. You are a sick monkey. You don't let your tongue tell a lie."
"No, sir; I don't mean to tell a lie, if I can help it, and I generally can."
"You walk in the strait and narrow way which leads to the meeting-house. I don't. All right! Broad is the way! But one thing is certain, Don John, you haven't seen me to-day."
"I say you have not; don't contradict me, if you want to take that head of yours home with you. Nobody will ask whether you have seen me or not; so that if a lie is likely to choke you, keep still with your tongue."
"I am not to say that I have seen you on the island?" queried Donald.
"You are not," replied the captain, with an echoing expletive.
"None of your business! Do as you are told, and spend the money I gave you for gingerbread and fast horses."
"But when my mother sees this money she will want to know where I got it."
"If you tell her or anybody else, I'll hammer your head till it isn't thicker than a piece of sheet-iron. Don't let her see the money. Hire a fast horse, and go to ride next Sunday."
"I suppose not. Give it to the missionaries to buy red flannel shirts for little niggers in the West Indies, if you like. I don't care what you do with it."
"You don't wish anybody to know you have been on the island this morning--is that the idea, Captain Shivernock?" asked Donald, not a little alarmed at the position in which his companion was placing him.
"You are not to see why," interrupted the captain, fiercely. "That's my business, not yours. Will you do as I tell you?"
"There isn't any trouble. Do you think I've killed somebody?--No. Do you think I've robbed somebody?--No. Do you think I've set somebody's house on fire?--No. Do you think I've stolen somebody's chickens?--No. Nothing of the sort. I want to know whether you can keep your tongue still. Let us see. There's the Juno."
"Somebody will see your boat, and know that you have been here--"
"That's my business, not yours. Don't bother your head with what don't concern you," growled the passenger.
The Juno was afloat, but she could not have been so many minutes, when Donald came alongside of her. It was now about half tide on the flood, and she must have grounded at about half tide on the ebb. This fact indicated that Captain Shivernock had left her at four o'clock in the morning. The owner of the Juno stepped into her, and Donald hoisted the sail for him. The boat was cat-rigged, and about twenty-four feet long. She was a fine craft, with a small cabin forward, furnished with every convenience the limited space would permit. The captain seated himself in the standing-room, and began to heap maledictions upon the boat.