"But Sam do shine be-e-autiful when he's hot," declared the boy.
This last was too much for Jack; he lay back and roared, whilst Jim's big brown eyes watched him in wonder.
But the men forward were rather huffed by Jack's friendship with the boy.
"Fust time h'I ever see'd the cock o' the foc's'le pal up with the ship's boy," grunted the cockney one day.
"You just be keerful what you say, Hollins," said Red Bill. "I just gave the little nipper a clout on the jaw t'other day for giving me sauce, when up jumps Derringer.
"'Leave that kid alone,' sezzee.
"'Mind yer own bloomin' bizness,' sez I; an' before I knows where I am, I'm lyin' on my back on the deck with a bump the size of a two-sheave block on the side of my head."
"'E calls 'im Jim, too," went on the scandalised cockney. "Might be bruvers, the way Jack spiles 'im. Kids want kickin'—h'it's the on'y way ter teach 'em."
But to return to the cat.
It was close on eight bells in the afternoon watch. The Higgins lay rolling in a heavy swell, with her courses hauled up; the sun was obscured, and heavy rain-clouds hung over the horizon.