Page:Dave Porter in the Far North.djvu/252

226 Granbury Lapham. His English blood could not stand the insult.

"Ha! this to me? Me! the burgomaster of Masolga!" The speaker stamped violently on the floor with his heavy boot. "You shall pay for that insult! A pig! I will show you!"

"You started the quarrel, I did not," said the Englishman. He was a trifle alarmed over the turn affairs had taken.

"Are you stopping here?" demanded the burgomaster, after an ugly pause.

"We expect to stop here."

"It shall not be—I will not have you in the house with me! Such English cattle! Hi, you, Mina!"—this to a servant who had come in. "Call your master at once, I must see him."

The servant departed, her wooden shoes clattering loudly on the bare floor. The burgomaster of Masolga paced up and down, slapping his hands together.

"I will show you your place!" he muttered, with a malicious look on his face. "Wait! Yes, wait!"

In a moment more the landlord came in, almost out of breath.

"A thousand pardons!" he said, bowing low. "It was stupid of Jan to let the fire burn low. I have ordered more wood, and"

"Let that pass, for the present," answered the