"He smashed me fist! He smashed me fist! Oh!
Oh!" whined Scootsy, hopping about with the pain,
sucking the injured hand and shaking its mate at
Archie, who was still brandishing the sapling and
yelling himself hoarse in his excitement.
The attacking party now drew off to the hillock
for a council of war. Only their heads could be seen
--their bodies lay hidden in the long grass of the
dune.
Archie and Tod were now dancing about the deck
in a delirium of delight--calling out in true piratical
terms, "We die, but we never surrender!" Tod
now and then falling into his native vernacular to
the effect that he'd "knock the liver and lights out
o' the hull gang," an expression the meaning of which
was wholly lost on Archie, he never having cleaned
a fish in his life.
Here a boy in his shirt-sleeves straightened up in
the yellow grass and looked seaward. Then Sandy
Plummer gave a yell and ran to the beach, rolling up
what was left of his trousers legs, stopping now and
then to untie first one shoe and then the other. Two
of the gang followed on a run. When the three
reached the water's edge they danced about like
Crusoe's savages, waving their arms and shouting.
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