Somehow my own lie seemed suddenly very like the truth to me. For that my father could tell stories as no one else could, I well knew; and that he carried pen and paper with him, and a slender selection of books, I also knew. I wondered for half a moment whether I had unawares pitched on the truth. Dirk wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and said with bitter scorn, "Ah, I know the likes of him. Gets the yarns out of chaps like us, and dishes them up fer the swell blokes. _Kah!_" he ejaculated with unction, "they don't mind the reading of 'em, but we what has the doing...." He drew his hand across his throat, and his meaning was unmistakable. At this I felt a surging indignation on my father's account. The man seemed to me to have insulted him, and I said, "You'd better not say that to my father." "Oho," he laughed, "I'd better not, hadn't I? An' what for no?" Then I realized I had said more than I should have done, and as though I had forgotten my remark I cried to cover my mistake, "You can't catch me." I ducked under his grabbing hand, and was away. Looking back I saw him spring up to watch me, and then he started on my track, whether in fun or earnest I didn't know. I gave him a good run, that much I remember, making for the rocks where I thought my nimbleness would be to my advantage; but he was up with me too soon, and I was forced to scramble up a tree into the high top branches where I knew he couldn't follow. But he didn't attempt to pursue. He stood below and shouted at me good-humouredly to come down and he wouldn't hurt me. I was suspicious at first, but what was I to do? Down I must come at the last. So I put a good face on the matter, and slid down at his feet. As it happened my confidence was well rewarded. He didn't grab at me as I had half expected, but with hands on hips stood grinning down at me, and after a long survey said, "Wull, an' what else can you do, since you're such a nippy 'un?" "Oh," I cried, "I can swim, and dive and--and I can fight." "Pity if you couldn't," he put in, "seeing as what a world you live in." "I fight with the knife," I said. "The devil you do!" he replied. In my belt I carried a wooden knife which I had whittled myself, and this I drew and rushed in on Dirk to show that my boast was no idle one. But he was too quick for me, and seized my wrist in true fashion. At the same moment he drew a cutlass and flourished it glitteringly over my head. I think he was surprised when I sprang and seized his wrist as my father had taught me, though of course he wrenched himself free with a single twist, at the same time releasing my imprisoned arm. Slowly he pushed his weapon back into his belt, and said, "Wull, you're a smart 'un," nodding his head appraisingly, and gazing at me as though pondering some problem. Then he muttered, "Yus, the kid's worth it," and this time drawing a dagger from his great sea-boot said, "See here, kiddy, I'll show you a trick worth learning."