If you'll b'lieve it, that pesky mare balked and wouldn't stir another
step.
And there we was! I punched and kicked and hollered, but all that
stubborn horse would do was lay her ears back flat, and snarl up her
lip, and look round at us, much as to say: "Now, then, you land sharks,
I've got you between wind and water!" And I swan to man if it didn't
look as if she had!
"Drive on!" says Clarissa, pretty average vinegary. "Haven't you made
trouble enough for us already, you dreadful man? Drive on!"
Hadn't _I_ made trouble enough! What do you think of that?
"You want to drown us!" says Miss Todd, continuing her chatty remarks.
"I see it all! It's a plot between you and that murderer. I give you
warning; if we reach the hotel, my brother and I will commence suit for
damages."
My temper's fairly long-suffering, but 'twas raveling some by this time.
"Commence suit!" I says. "I don't care WHAT you commence, if you'll
commence to keep quiet now!" And then I give her a few p'ints as to what
her brother had done, heaving in some personal flatteries every once in
a while for good measure.
I'd about got to thirdly when James give a screech and p'inted. And,
if there wa'n't Lonesome in the launch, headed right for us, and coming
a-b'iling! He'd run her along abreast of the beach and turned in at the
upper end of the Cut-Through.
You never in your life heard such a row as there was in that wagon.
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