The boys took the advice and soon procured a cooked ration of meat and potatoes. The cook told them where they would find plates.
“One of the mess has to wash them up,” he said, “and stow them away in the racks provided for them.”
“Johnson,” the eldest boy said to the smallest of the party, “you need not wash up to-day; that is the duty of the last comer.”
“I suppose it is the duty of each one of the mess by turn,” Will said quietly; “we learnt that much as we came down the coast.”
“You will have to learn more than that, young fellow,” the bully, who was seventeen, blustered. “You will have to learn that I am senior of the mess, and will have to do as I tell you. I have made one voyage already, and all the rest of you are greenhorns.”
“It seems to me from the manner in which you speak, that it is not a question of seniority but simply of bounce and bullying, and I hope that the other boys will no more give in to that sort of thing than Stevens or myself. I have yet to learn that one boy is in any way superior to the others, and in the course of the next hour I shall ascertain whether this is so.”
“Perhaps, after the meal is over, you will go down to the lower deck and allow me to give you a lesson.”
“As I told you,” Will answered quietly, “my friend and I are one. I don’t suppose that single-handed I could fight a great hulking fellow like you, but my friend and I are quite willing to do so together. So now if there is any talk of fighting, you know what to expect.”
The bully eyed the two boys curiously, but, like most of the type, he was at heart a coward, and felt considerable doubt whether these two boys would not prove too much for him. He therefore muttered sullenly that he would choose his own time.
“All right! choose by all means, and whenever you like to fix a time we shall be perfectly ready to accommodate you.”