Curious as to why the stranger should be making for the island, for she flew no signals, the men had ceased their work and stood gathered near the hut watching the brig.
“Mebbe he come for get da ’ile,” suggested Manuel. “Eef he see we here firs’, mos’ like he go da other islan’.”
“Faith an’ he will, thot!” declared Mike. “’Tis two’s a crowd here. Well b’jabbers we’ll soon be afther knowin’. He’s dhroppin’ av his anchor.”
Hardly had the brig swung to her anchor before a boat was lowered and manned, and six men came rapidly shoreward.
As it neared the beach, Mike stepped forward, and followed by two or three of his men, stumped down to the water’s edge.
“Shure an’ what moight it bay that ye’re wantin’ here?” he demanded as the boat’s keel grated on the beach.
The steersman,—a huge, raw boned mulatto in ragged, dirty clothes and with a great livid scar on one cheek, looked the bo’sun over contemptuously and his mouth widened in a twisted smile, disclosing broken, yellow fangs.
“Whadda matter wi’ you, Pat?” he replied insolently.
Mike grew purple and his gray whiskers bristled.
“Kape a civil tongue in yer head, ye dhirty nagur!” he fairly roared. “B’the Saints, if yez is a-lookin’ fer throuble yez’ll be afther foindin’ it widout lookin’ far, ye spade-faced, mud-colored, bilge-rat!”
“Haa!” sneered the other. “Da Irish no like da vees’tor, eh? He no mek welcom’ da other fellas. Hmm! Eet look laik you have pretty good luck already. Plenty kill an’ b’il down an’ plenty ’ile mek an’ in cask. Hmm! You tink you owna dis islan’, Micky?”
Fairly bursting with rage at the man’s insolence and manner, Mike took a stride forward with doubled fists, but one of the boat’s crew rose to his feet, swung his huge oar and aimed a crashing blow at the bo’sun’s head. Mike sprang aside in the nick of time and as he did so, the men in the boat leaped ashore, significantly hitching their sheath-knives forward as they did so, and Mike, realizing the futility of resisting them unarmed, beat a hasty retreat. Shouting derisive insults at him, the mulatto boat steerer turned and signaled to his ship, and a moment later, another boat dropped to the water and came speeding shoreward.
With his men gathered about him, Mike spluttered and fumed, alternately cursing the newcomers and berating his men for a lot of cowards for allowing them to land.