ted Laud.

"Yes, you did! I can prove it, and I will prove it, too."

"You are excited, Don John. You don't know what you are talking about."

"I think I do, and I'll bet you'll understand it, too, if there is any
law left in the State of Maine."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean what I say, and say what I mean."

"I haven't been near the Maud."

"Yes, you have! Didn't I see you sneaking across the wharf? Didn't I see
your mainsail alongside the pier? You can't humbug me. I know a pint of
soft soap from a pound of cheese," rattled Donald, who could talk very
fast when he was both excited and enraged; and Laud's tongue was no
match for his member.

"I tell you, I haven't been near the Maud."

"Don't tell me! I saw it all; I have two eyes that I wouldn't sell for
two cents apiece; and I'll put you over the road at a two-forty gait."

Laud saw that it was no use to argue the point, and he held his peace,
till the boat-builder had exhausted his rhetoric, and his stock of
expletives.

"What did you do it for, Laud?" asked he, at last, in a comparatively
quiet tone.

"I have told you a dozen times I didn't do it," replied the accused.
"You talk so fast I can't get a word in edgeways."

"It's no use for you to deny it," added Don John.

"Do you think I'd burn your yacht?"

"Yes, I do; and I know you tried to do it. If I hadn't been over by the
shop, you would have done it."

[Illustration: DON JOHN VISITS THE JUNO. Page 230.]

"I didn't do it, I repeat. Do you think I would lie about it? Do you
think I have no sense of honor about me!"

"Confound your honor!" sneered Donald.

"Don't insult me. When you assail my honor, you touch me in a tender
place."

"In a soft place, and that's in your head."

"Be careful, Don John. I advise you not to wake a sleeping lion."

"A sleeping jackass!"

"I claim to be a gentleman, and my honor is my capital stock in life."

"You have a very small capital to work on, then."

"I warn you to be cautious, Don John. My honor is all I have to rest
upon in this world."

"It's a broken reed. I wouldn't give a cent's worth of molasses candy
for the honor of a fellow who would destroy the property of another,
because he got mad with him."

In spite of his repeated warnings, Laud Cavendish was very forbearing,
though Donald kept the boat-hook where it would be serviceable in an
emergency.

"No, Don John, I did not set the Maud afire. Though you went back on me
this