"Oh no, oh no,--ho, ho, ho," chuckled Tooraloo. "What the deuce are you laughing at?" said I, a good deal surprised. Being a silent sort of fellow his peculiarity had not been so noticeable before. "Laugh--laugh--ho, ho, he. I am not laughing, sir--quite serious--he, he, ho." "It is a way Mr Tooraloo has got," said Lennox, smiling. "Oh, I see it is." "I am sure there will be no disappointment this time, sir,--_now_, since Big Claw is out of the way,--ho, ho, ho,"--quoth Toby. "Big Claw--who is Big Claw?" said I. "An Indian _chief_, sir, and one of our _chief_ traders,--he, he, ho,--and best customer, sir,--ho, ho, he,--but turned rogue at last, sir, rogue at last--he, he, he--left my mate with him, and Tom the Indian boy, voyage before last--he, he, he--and when I came back, he had cheated them both. Oh dear, if we did not lose fifty weight of shell,--ho, ho, he." "And was that all?" said I. "_That was all_--ho, ho, he," replied Toby. "Your mate was ill used, you said, by Big Claw?" "Yes,--ho, ho, he." "As how, may I ask?" "Oh, Big Claw _cut_ his throat, _that's all_--ho, ho, ho." "_All_? rather uncivil, however," said I. "_Very_, sir,"--quoth Toby,--"he, he, he." "And why did he cut his throat?" "Because he made free with one of Big Claw's wives--ho, ho." "So--that was not the thing, certainly; and what became of the wife?" "Cut _her_ throat, too--ha, ha, ha!"--as if this had been the funniest part of the whole story. "The devil he did!" said I. "What a broth of a boy this same Big Claw must be; and Indian Tom, I see him on board here?" "Cut _his_ throat too though--ho ho, ho--but _he_ recovered." "Why, I supposed as much, since he is waiting behind your chair there, captain. And what became of this infernal Indian bravo--this Master Big Claw, as you call him?" "Cut his _own_ throat--ha, ha, ha!--cut his own throat, the very day we arrived, by Gom, ha, ha, ha! ooro! looro! hooro;" for this being a sort of climax, he treated us with an extra rumblification in his gizzard, at the end of it. Here we all joined in honest Tooraloo's ha, ha, ha!--for the absurdity of the way in which the story was screwed out of him, no mortal could stand--a story that, on the face of it at first, bore simply to have _eventuated_ in the paltry loss of fifty pounds' weight of turtle-shell; but which in reality involved the destruction of no fewer than three fellow creatures, and the grievous maiming of a fourth. "_That's all_, indeed!"