'Twas only now just that I heard all this; and as the captain of this
here place, I shall ask leave of Cheeseman to have it out with Master
Carne, as soon as may be done without hurting the poor thing. If she
had been my child, the rope should have gone round his neck first, if it
come to mine there-arter!"
"The ----- villain!" Twemlow used a strong short word, without adding
heavily, it may be hoped, to the score against him. "And to think that
all this time he has been daring to address himself--But never mind that
now. It will be a bad time for him when I catch him by himself, though I
must not speak of Polly. Poor little Polly! what a pretty child she was!
I used to carry sugar-plums on purpose for her. Good-bye, Tugwell; I
must think about all this."
"And so must I, sir. What a strapping chap 'a be!" Captain Zebedee
continued to himself, as Twemlow strode away with the light step of a
mountain savage, carrying a long staff from force of habit, and looking
even larger than himself from the flow of chestnut hair and beard around
him. "Never did see such a hairy chap. Never showed no signs of it when
'a was a lad, and Miss 'Liza quite smooth in the front of her neck. Must
come of Hottentot climate, I reckon. They calls it the bush, from
the folk been so bushy. I used to think as my beard was a pretty good
example; but, Lord bless me and keep me, it would all go on his nose! If
'a spreadeth that over the face of Squire Carne, 'a will ravish him, as
the wicked doth ravish the poor.
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