Page:Ruth Fielding at Lighthouse Point.djvu/204

194 promised to give for the gal, he can have her. Give me the money, and I'll go my ways."

"I ain't no go-between for a scoundrel such as you, Jack Crab," declared the lighthouse-keeper. "There's no money here for ye."

"Then I'll have the gal if I tear the lighthouse down for it—stone by stone!" roared the fellow.

"And it's your kind that always blows before they breeches," declared Mother Purling, referring to the habit of the whale, which spouts before it upends and dives out of sight. "Go away!"

"I won't go away!"

"Yes, ye will, an' quick, too!"

"Old woman, ye don't know me!" stormed the unreasonable man. "I want that money, an' I'm bound to have it—one way or th' other!"

"You'll get nuthin', Jack Crab, but a broken head if ye keep on in this fashion," returned the woman of the lighthouse, her honest wrath growing greater every moment.

"We'll see about that!" howled the man. "Are ye goin' to let me in or not?"

"No, I tell ye! Go away!"

"Then I'll bust my way in, see ef I don't!"

At that the fellow threw himself against the door, and the screws of one hinge began to tear out of the woodwork. Mother Purling saw it, and motioned the frightened girls and Tom to-