“Thanks, noble sir,” replied the tramp with the same assumed grand air he had used when talking to Chief Dalton. “I fain would dine, and if you can take me to some palace where the beds are not too hard, and where I could have a broiled fowl, or a bit of planked whale, with a sip or two of ambrosial nectar, I would forever call you blessed.”
“Do you mean you’re hungry?” asked Bob, who had a fellow feeling for all starved persons.
“As the proverbial bear,” answered the tramp. “You haven’t a stray cracker about your person, have you?”
“No, but I’ve got a couple of ham sandwiches,” said Bob.
“Well if you’re not at it again, Chunky,” said Jerry. “Where’d you get ’em?”
“I put ’em in my pocket at the feed this afternoon,” replied Bob, taking the sandwiches out and passing them to the tramp, whose boat was now alongside. “I thought they’d come in handy.”
“As indeed they do,” the ragged man put in, munching away at the bread and meat with right good appetite. “I thank you most heartily.”
“If you care to come to our camp we can give you something more and a little coffee,” said Jerry. “You could also sleep under shelter. We have a tent ashore you can use and we can sleep on board the boat.”
“If it would not discommode you, I would be glad of the opportunity,” the tramp said, dropping his assumed manner and speaking sincerely. “I was about to spend the night in the woods,” he went on, “but I much prefer shelter. I have a mission here, and while I am on it I have to rough it at times. But I am almost finished.”
“Will you come aboard, or shall we tow you?” asked Ned.