"

"And if I do the miser, and deny you this piece of my freight?"

The spruce envoy looked round at the splintered ship, and the battered
navy beside her. "Why, then, Tob, we shall send you all to the fishes
in very short time, and instead of Deucalion standing before the Gods
alone, he will go down with a fine ragged company limping at his heels."

"I doubt it," said Tob, "but we shall see. As for letting you have my
Lord Deucalion, that is out of the question. For see here, pot-mate
Dason; in the first place, if I went to Atlantis without Deucalion, my
other lord, Tatho, would come back one of these days, and in his hands I
should die by the slowest of slow inches; in the second, I have seen
my Lord Deucalion kill a great sea lizard, and he showed himself such a
proper man that day that I would not give him up against his will, even
to Tatho himself; and in the third place, you owe me for your share in
our last wine-bout ashore, and I'll see you with the nether Gods before
I give you aught till you've settled that score."

"Well, Tob, I hope you'll drown easy. As for that wife of yours, I've
always had a fancy for her myself, and I shall know how to find a use
for the woman."

"I'll draw your neck for that, you son of a European," said Tob; "and
if you do not clear off this deck I'll draw it here. Go," he cried, "you
father of monkey children! Get away, and let me fight you fairly, or by
my honour I'll stamp the inwards out of you, and make your silly crew
wear them as necklaces."

Upon which Dason went to his galley.

Promptly Tob set going the machine on our own "Bear," and bawled his
orders right and left to the other ships. The crew might be weak with
scurvy, but they were quick to obey. Instantly the five vessels were all
started, and because our Lord the Sun was shining brightly, got soon to
the full of their pace. The whole of our small navy converged, singling
out one ship of their opponents, and she, not being ready for so swift
an attack, got flurried, and endeavoured to turn and run for room,
instead of trying to meet us bows on. As a consequence, the whole of our
five ships hit her together on the broadside, tearing her planking with
their underwater beaks, and sinking her before we had backed clear from
the engage.

But if we thus brought the enemy's number down to five, and so equal to
our own, the advantage did not remain with us for long. The three nimble
galleys formed into line: their boats