“And it sure looked, even then and there, as though I had him, Uncle. A he-devil—as described by those sailors. A snake around his upper arm. Captain of a freighter—and remember, when he near-drowned me, he’d said he was going to be a ship-captain. The freighter a British vessel—and his father an Englishman. I saw it all in the twinkling of an eye. They’d evidently gone back to England after moving out of our neighborhood. And Lucifer had ultimately gotten on the sea. And here he was today—commanding an old freighter.
“Well, then and there, I saw my chance to pay him back. For I’m really only human, Uncle—not quite advanced enough in ethics to yearn to turn the other cheek. When someone does me wrong—I sort of—of frustrate in my own juices, if you get my metaphase, and—”
“Metaphase, Geor
