"
"It's this way," he says. "Those are just two different ways of
statin' that things are interestin'. And yet, you're not far from the
facts. It was a shoemaker in Portland, Maine," he says, "that taught
me to chuck metres when I was a young one, and the shoemaker's son
taught me to fight in the back yard, more because he was bigger than
because he was interested in educatin' me. By-and-by I beat the
shoemaker on metres and the son in the back yard, and then I left
'em, for they was no more use to me. But I never found anything else
so much satisfaction as them two pursuits. But I'll go away, Tommy,"
he says, "I'll leave Portate. I will, honest. I'll be good. I wish
they'd quit puttin' temptations on me. But they won't. They're comin'
out again! Look at 'em! They've borrowed the _Juanita_, and
she's comin' with only the steersman in sight, and a cabin full of
sojers that can't keep their bayonets inside of the windows. My!
ain't they sly!"
He went to the companion way and called Irish, telling him to "start
her up."
The _Juanita_ was one of the Transport Company's tugs. She
appeared to be engaged in a stratagem. She passed the _Harvest
Moon_, then swung around and came up, on the other side.
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