"Pity we didn"t think of it before," said Miss Davies. "I s"pose the crew won"t help him?"
"Not they," said Miss Evans scornfully. "If they do, we"ll serve them the same."
They went off, leaving the skipper a prey to gathering uneasiness, watching their movements with wrinkled brow. From the forecastle and the galley they produced two mops and a broom, and he caught his breath sharply as Miss Evans came on deck with a pot of white paint in one hand and a pot of tar in the other.
"Now, girls," said Miss Evans.
"Put those things down," said the skipper in a peremptory voice.
"Sha"n"t," said Miss Evans bluntly. "You haven"t got enough on yours,"
she said, turning to Miss Davies. "Don"t spoil the skipper for a ha"porth of tar."
At this new version of an old saw they laughed joyously, and with mops dripping tar and paint on the deck, marched in military style up to the skipper, and halted in front of him, smiling wickedly.
Then the heart of the skipper waxed sore faint within him, and, with a wild yell, he summoned the trusty crew to his side.
The crew came on deck slowly, and casting furtive glances at the scene, pushed Ephraim Biddle to the front.
"Take those mops away from "em," said the skipper haughtily.
"Don"t you interfere," said Miss Evans, looking at them over her shoulder.
"Else we"ll give you some," said Miss Williams bloodthirstily.
"Take those mops away from "em!" bawled the skipper, instinctively drawing back as Miss Evans made a pa.s.s at him.
"I don"t see as "ow we can interfere, sir," said Biddle with deep respect.
"_What!_" said the astonished skipper.
"It would be agin the lor for us to interfere with people," said Biddle, turning to his mates, "dead agin the lor."
"Don"t you talk rubbish," said the skipper anxiously. "Take "em away from "em. It"s my tar and my paint, and----"
"You shall have it," said Miss Evans rea.s.suringly.
"If we touched "em," said Biddle impressively, "it"d be an a.s.sault at lor. "Sides which, they"d probably muss us up with "em All we can do, sir, is to stand by and see fair play."
"Fair play!" cried the skipper dancing with rage, and turning hastily to the mate, who had just come on the scene. "Take those things away from "em, Jack."
"Well, if it"s all the same to you," said the mate, "I"d rather not be drawn into it."
"But I"d rather you were," said the skipper sharply. "Take "em away."
"How?" inquired the mate pertinently.
"I order you to take "em away," said the skipper. "How, is your affair."
"I"m not goin" to raise my hand against a woman for anybody," said the mate with decision. "It"s no part o" my work to get messed up with tar and paint from lady pa.s.sengers."
"It"s part of your work to obey me, though," said the skipper, raising his voice; "all of you. There"s five of you, with the mate, and only three gells. What are you afraid of?"
"Are you going to take us back?" demanded Jenny Evans.
"Run away," said the skipper with dignity. "Run away."
"I shall ask you three times," said Miss Evans sternly. "One--are you going back? Two--are you going back? Three------"
In the midst of a breathless silence she drew within striking distance, while her allies taking up a position on either flank of the enemy, listened attentively to the instructions of their leader.
"Be careful he doesn"t catch hold of the mops," said Miss Evans, "but if he does the others are to hit him over the head with the handles. Never mind about hurting him."
"Take this wheel a minnit, Jack," said the skipper, pale but determined.
The mate came forward and took it unwillingly, and the skipper, trying hard to conceal his trepidation, walked towards Miss Evans and tried to quell her with his eye. The power of the human eye is notorious, and Miss Evans showed her sense of the danger she ran by making an energetic attempt to close the skipper"s with her mop, causing him to duck with amazing nimbleness. At the same moment another mop loaded with white paint was pushed into the back of his neck. He turned with a cry of rage, and then realising the odds against him flung his dignity to the winds and dodged with the agility of a schoolboy. Through the galley and round the masts with the avenging mops in mad pursuit, until breathless and exhausted he suddenly sprang on to the side and climbed frantically into the rigging.
"Coward!" said Miss Evans, shaking her weapon at him.
"Come down," cried Miss Williams. "Come down like a man."
"It"s no good wasting time over _him_," said Miss Evans, after another vain appeal to the skipper"s manhood. "He"s escaped. Get some more stuff on your mops."
The mate, who had been laughing boisterously, checked himself suddenly, and a.s.sumed a gravity of demeanour more in accordance with his position.
The mops were dipped in solemn silence, and Miss Evans approaching regarded him significantly.
"Now, my dears," said the mate, waving his hand with a deprecating gesture, "don"t be silly."
"Don"t be _what?_" inquired the sensitive Miss Evans raising her mop.
"You know what I mean," said the mate hastily. "I can"t help myself."
"Well, we"re going to help you," said Miss Evans. "Turn the ship round."
"You obey orders, Jack," cried the skipper from aloft.
"It"s all very well for you sitting up there in peace and comfort," said the mate indignantly. "I"m not going to be tarred to please you. Come down and take charge of your ship."
"Do your duty, Jack," said the skipper, who was polishing his face with a handkerchief. "They won"t touch you. They daren"t. They"re afraid to."
"You"re egging "em on," cried the mate wrath-fully. "I won"t steer; come and take it yourself."
He darted behind the wheel as Miss Evans, who was getting impatient, made a thrust at him, and then, springing out, gained the side and rushed up the rigging after his captain. Biddle, who was standing close by, gazed earnestly at them and took the wheel.
"You won"t hurt old Biddle, I know," he said, trying to speak confidently.
"Of course not," said Miss Evans emphatically.
"Tar don"t hurt," explained Miss Williams.