. "I cac'late they'd 'a' turned to 'n' bit me,
same ez mad dogs."

"They'd have played foot-ball with your hat," responded Jack, who knew
the ways of brokers, "and in two minutes you wouldn't have had a whole
garment on you. I've seen them tie a man's legs and drag him around the
room with a rope, then toss him in a blanket for a wind-up. They are a
tough lot, and a stranger who gets into their hands meets hard usage."

"That's about the idee I had on 'em," said Jess; "they're wuss'n Injuns,
an' ain't satisfied with takin' a man's money, they want his hair, hide,
'n' toe nails. If ever one on 'em comes ashore on Rockhaven 'n' I'm
around, he'll think he's run into a hornet's nest. We'll use him wuss'n
we did Abe Winty. He was a shiftless cuss that got out into the island
somehow 'bout ten year ago, an' begun beggin' for a livin'. He 'lowed he
had asmer an' heart troubles an' a tech o' liver complaint, 'n' jest
couldn't do no liftin' or any sort o' hard work. He fooled us a spell,
till we began missin' things 'n' found they were gittin' into the hands
o' a low-down fellar who sold rum on the sly, 'n' then we held a sort o'
indignation caucus, 'n' Abe wa'n't invited. We had diskivered by this
time that Abe's heart 'n' liver was doin' business 'bout ez usual, 'n'
the only thing that ailed him was downright laziness. We sorter compared
idees at the meetin', an' the upshot on't was we concluded the island
wa'n't big 'nuff for him. We'd tried all manner o' talk to shame him,
but callin' names an' 'busin' him didn't hev no more 'fect than rain on
a duck's back. We'd tried coaxin' an' cussin' to git him to work, but
him 'n' work wus mortal enemies, 'n' when he couldn't beg 'nuff to eat
he'd steal it. Suthin' had to be did, 'n' we did it. Fust we ketched 'n'
shackled him 'n' locked him up in a fish-house fer two days, feedin' him
on bread 'n' water,--mostly water at that,--an' when he'd got good 'n'
hungry we sarved him a meal cooked with drug stuff, 'nuff in it to turn
the stomach o' a Digger Injun. He was that starved he et it middlin'
quick, an' then, to make the preceedin's more interestin' to Abe, the
man that took the vittles to him told him pizen had been put in 'em 'n'
he hadn't more'n an hour to live. Then we gathered round, peekin' in the
door 'n' winders ez if cac'latin' to enjie Abe's dyin' agonies. It
wa'n't long 'fore the drug stuff began workin', an' Abe, he got more
scared than old Bill Atlas was when we sot the s