Page:Bedford-Jones--Boy Scouts of the Air at Cape Peril.djvu/70

 my senses together and feels the back o' my head, thar was the criss-cross ridges made by that 'ere pistol butt, and I knowed right off what that devil had done. I hed blood in my eye, lads, and ef I'd 'a ketched that scoundrel then, I'm a-feared thar wouldn't 'a been no pacin'-off dooel, but jes' a plain ev'y-day murder. But I scours the town, and nary a Bill Perkins could I find, and I goes back to the ship and he warn't thar, and the next day he didn't turn up, ner the next, ner nary day till the ship sailed, and then I seed he'd meant to desert f'un the fust."

The "Cap'n" leaned back reflectively.

"Gee! what would you do if you got him now?" asked Cat.

"Listen, lads, listen," continued the old man, after another puff, "I'm goin' to surprise ye. You 'spect me to say I'd reach out and wring his mis'able neck fer him, don't ye? No, no, I wouldn't. I've larned a lot since them times, and the hardest lesson I ever larned was to forgive yo' enemies, but I've learned it. Hatin' don't do yo' disposition no good and it plumb spiles yo' complexion."