“Well, I couldn’t make him budge, so I decided to go back and get the lay of the land.  Lobelia was busy inside the shanty when I got there and looking black as a thundercloud, so I judged ’twa’n’t best to say nothing to her, and I went down and finished the job on the schooner.  At night, when I come in to suppers she met me at the door.  She had a big stick in her hand and looked savage.  I was a little nervous.

“’Now, Lobelia ‘Ankins,’ says I, ’put down that and be sociable, there’s a good girl.’

“’Course I knew she couldn’t understand me, but I was whistling to keep my courage up, as the saying is.

“‘’Ammond!’ says she, p’inting toward the woods.

“‘Yes,’ says I, ‘Hammond’s taking a walk for his health.’

“‘’Ammond!’ says she, louder, and shaking the stick.

“‘Now, Lobelia,’ says I, smiling smooth as butter, ’do put down that club!’

“‘’Ammond!’ she fairly hollers.  Then she went through the most blood-curdling pantomime ever was, I reckon.  First she comes up to me and taps me on the chest and says, ‘’Edge.’  Then she goes creeping round the room on tiptoe, p’inting out of the winder all the time as much as to say she was pertending to walk through the woods.  Then she p’ints to one of the stumps we used for chairs and screeches “Ammond! and fetches the stump an awful bang with the club.  Then she comes over to me and kinder snuggles up and smiles, and says, ‘’Edge,’ and tried to put the club in my hand.

“My topnot riz up on my head.  ‘Good Lord!’ thinks I, ’she’s making love to me so’s to get me to take that club and go and thump Hammond with it!’

“I was scared stiff, but Lobelia was between me and the door, so I kept smiling and backing away.

“‘Now, Lobelia,’ says I, ‘don’t be—­’

“‘’Ammond!’ says she.

“’Now, Miss ‘Ankins, d-o-n’t be hasty, I—­’

“’’Ammond!

“Well, I backed faster and faster, and she follered me right up till at last I begun to run.  Round and round the place we went, me scart for my life and she fairly frothing with rage.  Finally I bust through the door and put for the woods at a rate that beat Hammond’s going all holler.  I never stopped till I got close to the palm tree.  Then I whistled and Hammond answered.

“When I told him about the rumpus, he set and laughed like an idiot.

“’’Ow d’you like Miss ‘Ankin’s love-making?’ he says.

“‘You’ll like it less’n I do,’ I says, ’if she gets up here with that club!’

“That kind of sobered him down again, and we got to planning.  After a spell, we decided that our only chance was to sneak down to the schooner in the dark and put to sea, leaving Lobelia alone in her glory.

“Well, we waited till twelve o’clock or so and then we crept down to the beach, tiptoeing past the shanty for fear of waking Lobelia.  We got on the schooner all right, hauled up anchor, h’isted sail and stood out of the lagoon with a fair wind.  When we was fairly to sea we shook hands.