The parley that followed with the captain was short and snappy. He
absolutely forbade us to board the Lancashire Queen, and as
absolutely refused to give up the two men. By this time Charley
was as enraged as the Greek. Not only had he been foiled in a long
and ridiculous chase, but he had been knocked senseless into the
bottom of his boat by the men who had escaped him.
"Knock off my head with little apples," he declared emphatically,
striking the fist of one hand into the palm of the other, "if those
two men ever escape me! I'll stay here to get them if it takes the
rest of my natural life, and if I don't get them, then I promise
you I'll live unnaturally long or until I do get them, or my name's
not Charley Le Grant!"
And then began the siege of the Lancashire Queen, a siege memorable
in the annals of both fishermen and fish patrol. When the Reindeer
came along, after a fruitless pursuit of the shad fleet, Charley
instructed Neil Partington to send out his own salmon boat, with
blankets, provisions, and a fisherman's charcoal stove.
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