Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/215

. Me keeps house for dem. Dey tinks me alone wid Bungo an' Letta, ho! ho! but me 's got cumpiny dis day. Sit down an' grub wat yous can. Doo you good. Doo Letta and Bungo good. Doos all good. Fire away! Ha! ha—a! Keep you's nose out o' dat pie, Bungo, you brute. Yous git sik eff you heat more."

Regardless of this admonition, the poor old man broke off a huge mass of pie-crust, which he began to mouth with his toothless gums, a quiet smile indicating at once his indifference to Meerta and consequences, while he mumbled something about its not being every day he got so good a chance.

"Das true," remarked the old woman, with another hilarious laugh. "Dey go hoff awful quick dis day."

While Sam and Robin sat down to enjoy a good dinner, or rather breakfast, of which they stood much in need, Letta explained, in a disjointed rambling fashion, that after a feed of this kind the naughty men usually had a fight, after which they took a long sleep, and then had the dishes cleaned up and the silver things locked away before taking their departure from the cave for "a long, long time," by which, no doubt, she indicated the period spent on a pilfering expedition. But on this particular occasion, she added, while the naughty men were seated at the feast, one of their number from