"Do you want me?"
"Bill thinks somebody has gone overboard," said the mate. "Are you all
here?"
In answer to this the mystified men turned out all standing, and came on
deck yawning and rubbing their eyes, while the mate explained the
situation. Before he had finished the cook suddenly darted off to the
galley, and the next moment the forlorn cry of a bereaved soul broke on
their startled ears.
"What is it?" cried the mate.
"Come here!" shouted the cook, "look at this!"
He struck a match and held it aloft in his shaking fingers, and the men,
who were worked up to a great pitch of excitement and expected to see
something ghastly, after staring hard for some time in vain, profanely
requested him to be more explicit.
"She's thrown all the saucepans and things overboard," said the cook
with desperate calmness. "This lid of a tea kettle is all that's left
for me to do the cooking in."
* * * * *
The Gannet, manned by seven famine-stricken misogynists, reached London
six days later, the skipper obstinately refusing to put in at an
intermediate port to replenish his stock of hardware. The most he would
consent to do was to try and borrow from a passing vessel, but the
unseemly behaviour of the master of a brig, who lost two hours owing to
their efforts to obtain a saucepan of him, utterly discouraged any
further attempts in that direction, and they settled down to a diet of
biscuits and water, and salt beef scorched on the stove.
Pages:
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213