"A fisherman ain't a man without a boat," nods Mad Jack with a certainty.

"You got any money?" squints Third Eye

"Hell no!" comes the huffing answer. "I got all my last hauls paid in cash-don't trust banks. Sixty grand went down with my tub. Sixty grand-Could have at least put that down on somethin.' "

Where you stayin?"

"Third sand dune down the beach," booms Mad Jack in exasperation and he takes a long draught from the orangey-gold glass.

"That'll be alright for the summer," nods Third eye with a wink.

"Hey, Anubis has a boat!" sails another voice down the bar with a slightly but decidedly sneering cast to go with it. Mad Jack turns to see a short pit-bullish man knock back a shot with a tight fist wrapped around the whiskey glass.

 

 

"Yeah, how's that, Delaney?" Mad Jack nods a little warily. Some sidekick of Delaney's drools in snickering laughter beside this short man. It is hard to tell what fire fills the sidekick's glass. The feisty Delaney bangs his own glass down on the bar hard and careless, not caring if it breaks or not.

"Yeah, that Egyptian has a boat for sale-be just right for you," continues Delaney, "it has a nice w-i-d-e body. Take even your fat butt." The sidekick snickers some more in his drool.

What was left of Mad Jack's smile fades altogether behind a gathering cloud over his brow. He starts drifting toward Delaney with surprising nimblness for a big man.

"You know, Delaney," Mad Jack says with a regained, but level smile, extra nice, "you always riminded me of a slime eel, you got that ugly slippery look about you. Bet you could slip through a bilge pump clogged full of silt. Or full of something else." Delaney's hairy fist clenches around his glass, and he looses his own shady smirk as he turns to glower at the approaching barrel shape of Mad Jack.

"Easy there, boys," cautions Third Eye with hands raised and drifting midway between the two and looking at some spot right between the two antagonists, which is to say, right at each of them.