Free Port Starbird (Storm Ketchum Adventures) by Garrett Dennis Page B

at his captive audience. He tipped his bottle up, then frowned and turned it upside-down. Joette glanced around frantically and saw the bottle Ketch was holding out for her. She grabbed it and gave it to the Captain, who leisurely twisted the cap off. "Well, what happened then?" she demanded, biting at a nail.
    The Captain took a long pull, then went on. "Well, like I said, I looked 'im straight in the eye. Just like I figured, he hesitated, and then he starts goin' green around the gills. Pretty soon he looks away and  lowers his arm. 'I can't do it', he says."
    The tension had be en eased as planned, and Ketch watched with interest as the Captain allowed everyone to let out a collective breath and start to relax.
    "But then he blows hi sself up and he says, 'But if I ever hear tell a you and her again, next time you won't be so lucky, you dirty son of a bitch', and then he slings somebody's beer in my face, turns his back, and starts walkin' away." Here the Captain paused again to ingest some more fish. "Well, I couldn't let that go by, not in them days. 'Gutless', I says loud and clear. He stops dead at that. 'What did you say?' he says, and he turns back around. So I says it again, still lookin' right at 'im - 'Gutless'! And then I added on 'Pussy!', for good measure. Next thing I know, that blade comes flyin' 'cross the room, straight at me."
    "What happened? Did he cut you? What happened then?" The Captain let the agitated chorus run its course and winked at Ketch again as he slowly took another sip.
    "Well, I saw that blade comin' and I didn't move a inch, never even flinched. My eyes were pretty good back then and I figured it'd miss, but even so I figured it a little too close as it turned out." He took another quick chug. "Whenever we was out to sea they always give me midnight watch, you know, on account a my eyes, 'cause they knew what a good lookout I was. Why, one time I spotted a -"
    "What happened? What happened with the knife? What did you do then?" the chorus started again, protesting the turn the story was taking.
    "Okay, okay," the Captain said with a grin. "Well, like I said, I figured it a mite close, and I should a ducked, 'cause I damn near got myself kilt that night. 'Course, I was pretty well lickered up, but still. Anyway, I sat there, still lookin' right at 'im, and I heard that blade go singin' past right under my ear, and right after I felt the blood runnin' down my neck. See, it nicked me, and it opened up pretty near a two-inch gash right here on the side a my neck." He tilted his head and displayed the scar for Joette, who now sat spellbound next to him.
    "Oh, it's true, look at this, y'all come look !" she said. There was some murmuring, whether the impressed kind or the merely polite kind Ketch couldn't tell for sure, though with this crew he strongly suspected the former. Then Len asked, "So what happened to that ole boy? Did he just leave after that?"
    "Oh, he left all right," the Captain emphatically answered. "I threw the sumbitch through the front window, and they called a doc to come stitch me up down at the precinct house later that night."
    " Ha!" Mario exclaimed.
    "But I'll tell y'all, I still never went over to that woman's place again. I may be crazy, but I ain't stupid," the Captain concluded.
    " Oh, man!" Joette breathed. Ketch noticed she'd pulled her chair right up next to the Captain's, and her free hand was resting on his knee.
    "Looks like he might've hooked one," Kari remarked quietly to Ketch in amusement. Ketch had to smile as well. How did he manage it, and at his age? It must be the tall tales. Some women were fascinated by the seafaring type, and some by men in uniform, and there were women who were selectively attracted to pirates and rogues, and there were those as well who were attracted to older men; and the Captain had been all of the above at one time or another.
    "So is all that really true? Did he really get that scar in a bar fight?" Kari asked.
    " Well,"