After
its stifling prison, the air was simply delicious.
"Bob!" yelled the skipper suddenly.
"Ay, ay, sir!" said the look-out, in a startled voice.
"Did you mew?" inquired the skipper.
"Did I WOT, sir?" cried the astonished Bob.
"Mew," said the skipper sharply, "like a cat?"
"No, sir," said the offended seaman. "What 'ud I want to do that for?"
"I don't know what you want to for," said the skipper, looking round him
uneasily. "There's some more rain coming, Bob."
"Ay, ay, sir," said Bob.
"Lot o' rain we've had this summer," said the skipper, in a meditative
bawl.
"Ay, ay, sir," said Bob. "Sailing-ship on the port bow, sir."
The conversation dropped, the skipper, anxious to divert his thoughts,
watching the dark mass of sail as it came plunging out of the darkness
into the moonlight until it was abreast of his own craft. His eyes
followed it as it passed his quarter, so that he saw not the stealthy
approach of the cat which came from behind the companion, and sat down
close by him. For over thirty hours the animal had been subjected to the
grossest indignities at the hands of every man on board the ship except
one. That one was the skipper, and there is no doubt but that its
subsequent behaviour was a direct recognition of that fact.
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