What's the use holdin' a
grudge after twenty-five years?"
"Oh, I ain't holdin' a grudge, exactly, Gib, my boy. I admit I
had a good run for my money an' it was a smart piece o' work, an'
I got to admire the idea, same as I got to admire the seamanship
you displayed sailin' the _Chesapeake_ single-handed. It ain't
what you done to me as makes my blood boil. It's what you went
an' done afterward."
"What'd I do afterward? You can't hang nothin' on me, Phineas P.
Scraggs. Bluffin' don't go. Cough it up."
"All right, since you drive me to it. How about that lovely,
untootered savage that you lures into your foul clutches so's you
can make yourself king of Aranuka? Hey? Hey? How about that
little tropic wild flower you carelessly plucked an' thrun away?
Oh, I'll admit she was a savage, but she was sweet an' human for
all that an' she had feelin's. She had a heart to bust an' you
busted it for fair."
Mr. Gibney attempted to hoot, but made a poor job of it. "Why,
wherever do you get this wild tale, Scraggsy, old spell-binder?
You're sure jingled or you wouldn't talk so vagrant."
"You can't git away with it like that, Gib. I trailed you. Gib,
for two mortal years I follered you, after you dropped us at
Suva, an' I was just a thirstin' for your blood.
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