“If you want a quiet place to write in, and Hartington is using his cabin, you can sit in mine, Lynwood, any time I’m not there.”
II
The end to Aggett’s persecution, which the Warrant Officer had said must soon come, came unexpectedly. The ship was out of sight of land. Divisions and Prayers were over, and, there being no Gunnery that day, the hands had been told off for their forenoon duties. Driss, who had kept the First Watch and the Morning, came up from the Gunroom at about ten o’clock. He stood on the quarter-deck, drinking in the fresh air, and wondering how many minutes he might thus spend away from the Engineering drawing which he had deserted. Because he was very tired and thought himself unobserved he was unseamanlike enough to lean on the quarter-deck rails.
“Mr. Driss!”
He turned to see the Captain standing a few yards away from him. He sprang to attention, and saluted.
“Have you nothing to do this forenoon except lean on the quarter-deck rails?”
But Driss was not afraid of the Captain. “I have nothing to do this forenoon, sir, except an Engineering sketch. I came up for a minute to get some air.”
“No lecture?”
“No, sir. Midshipmen engineering don’t do School. We do the sketch in our own time, sir, working it in as we like.”
“So you came up to get some air?” the Captain said, looking steadily into Driss’s face. “Don’t you feel well?”