Why not cut your cable and take French leave o' them?
What's the use o' tryin' to lick the blackguards when it'll do us no manner o' good ?" "Mate," said the captain, in a low voice, "you talk like a fresh-water sailor.

I can only attribute this shyness to some strange delusion; for surely" (his voice assumed a slightly sneering tone as he said this) "surely I am not to suppose that _you_ have become soft-hearted! Besides, you are wrong in regard to the cargo being aboard; there's a good quarter of it lying in the woods, and that blackguard chief knows it and won't let me take it off.

He defied us to do our worst, yesterday." "Defied us! did he ?" cried the mate, with a bitter laugh.

"Poor contemptible thing!" "And yet he seems not so contemptible but that you are afraid to attack him." "Who said I was afraid ?" growled the mate, sulkily.

"I'm as ready as any man in the ship.