h Gurnet sprang on
him like a tiger and seized him round the throat with both hands,
choking a shout that was coming up, and causing his eyes to start almost
out of his head. Without uttering a word, and only giving now and then
a terrible hiss through his clenched teeth, Gurnet pushed the Spaniard
before him, keeping carefully out of sight of the beach, and holding him
fast by the nape of the neck, so that when he perceived the slightest
symptom of a tendency to cry out he had only to press his strong fingers
and effectually nip it in the bud.

"He led him to a secluded place among the rocks, far beyond earshot of
the shore, and there, setting him free, pointed to a flat rock and to
his guitar, and hissed, rather than said, in tones that could neither be
misunderstood nor gainsaid--

"`There, dance and sing, will 'ee, till 'ee bu'st!'

"Gurnet clenched his huge fist as he spoke, and, as the Spaniard grew
pale, and hesitated, he shook it close to his face--so close that he
tapped the prominent bridge of the man's nose, and hissed again, more
fiercely than before--

"`Ye haaf saved bucca, ye mazed totle, that can only frighten women an'
child'n, an burn housen; thee'rt fond o' singin' an' dancin'--dance now,
will 'ee, ye gurt bufflehead, or ef ye waant I'll scat thee head in
jowds, an' send 'ee scrougin' over cliffs, I will.'"

In justice to the narrator it is right to say that these words are not
so bad as they sound.

"The fisherman's look and action were so terrible whilst he poured forth
his wrath, which was kept alive by the thought of the smouldering embers
of his own cottage, that the Spaniard could not but obey. With a
ludicrous compound of fun and terror he began to dance and sing, or
rather to leap and wail, while Gurnet stood before him with a look of
grim ferocity that never for a moment relaxed.

"Whenever the Spaniard stopped from exhaustion Gurnet shouted `Go on,'
in a voice of thunder, and the poor man, being thoroughly terrified,
went on until he fell to the ground incapable of further exertion.

"Up to this point Gurnet had kept saying to himself, `He is fond o'
dancin' an' singin', let un have it, then,' but when the poor man fell
his heart relented. He picked him up, threw him across his shoulder as
if he had been a bolster, and bore him away. At first the men of the
place wanted to hang him on the spot, but Gurnet claimed him as his
prisoner, and would not allow this. He gave him his li