Ward leaped to his feet and strode toward the fence, his long legs
working like calipers.

"What do ye want of Pharline Pike?" he demanded, angrily.

"None of your business," replied the cheerful sailor. "If this is
the way landlubbers take an honest man's hail, ye're all jest as bad
as I've heard ye was."

"I'm a mind to cuff your ears," yapped the Colonel.

The other glanced up the angular height of his antagonist.

"Try it," he said, squaring his sturdy little figure. "Try it, and
I'll climb your main riggin' and dance a jig on that dog-vane of a
head of yourn."

This alacrity for combat clearly backed down Ward. In his rampageous
life his tongue had usually served him better than his fists.

"Avast, shipmate!" called the Cap'n, in his best sea tones. The
sailor beamed delighted recognition of marine masonry. "The fact of
the matter is, my friend here has some claim--the truth is, he's--"

"You go 'long two miles, swing at the drab school-house, and then
take the second house--white one--on the left-hand side of the road,"
bawled Ward, "and you go mighty quick!"

The sailor ducked acknowledgment and rolled away.