boarding the brig in such a desperate hurry--just as I had hurried to
close with his offer and to clinch it by paying down my
passage-money--he would have gone off without me. And very likely he
would have thought that the lesson in worldly wisdom he had given me
was only fairly paid for by the fifty dollars which had jumped so
easily out of my pocket into his.

But that was not the way I looked at the matter then; and in my heart
I cursed Captain Luke up hill and down dale for having, as I fancied,
lured me aboard the brig and so into peril of my skin. And my anger
was so strong that I went by turns hot and cold with it, and itched to
get at Captain Luke with my fists and give him a dressing--which I
very well could have done, had we come to fighting, for I was a bigger
man than he was and a stronger man, too.

It is rather absurd as I look back at it, considering what a taking I
was in and how strong was my desire just then to punch Captain Luke's
head for him, that while I was at the top of my rage he came aft to
where I was leaning against the rail and put his hand on my shoulder
as friendly as possible and asked me to come down into the cabin to
supper. I suppose I had a queer pale look, because of my anger, for he
said not to mind if I did feel sickish, but to eat all the same and I
would feel better for it; and he really was so cordial and so pleasant
that for a moment or two I could not answer him. It was upsetting,
when I was so full of fight, to have him come at me in that friendly
way; and I must say that I felt rather sheepish, and wondered whether
I had not been working myself up over a mare's-nest as I followed
him below.

We had the mate to supper with us, at a square table in the middle of