I nudged his skinny ribs jocularly. My mental condition truly was not up to standard that moment.
"Huh!" grunted Jeff, casting me a quick, amused glance.
"Why didn't you wait and have breakfast?" I asked, drawing a breath which flooded the deepest cell in my lungs.
I tell you it was good to sit by the side of that ragged piece of flotsam. I felt hope coming back, for I knew he was my friend.
"Woke up—thirsty 's 'ell. Your'n gone; mine gone. Had to hev some liquor, so I lit out, easy, so 's not to wake you up. Had some muster, didn't we?—Huh?"
I nodded. I didn't care to review that night's doings.
"See here, Satyr," I said, abruptly; "where's Lessie?"
"She's 'ith Granny 'n' Gran'fer, I reck'n," he replied, with a naturalness which for a moment caused me to wonder if he knew of their departure. "Leas'ways, they lef' together," he added, after a brief interval.
"Where have they gone?—what did they go for?—when are they coming back?"
My companion tossed the last bit of cheese, rind and all, into his mouth; inverted the sack and allowed all the crumbs to go the same way; blew the sack up and burst it on his knee, and began to feel for his pipe before he replied.