“Of course; it’s only natural.”
“Well, then, you’re going to show me the way out?”
“To-morrow morning, when I feel satisfied that Eben Megg will not come.”
“No, no, to-night—if it is to-night yet. Come!”
“No,” said Aleck, firmly. “I gave him my word that I’d wait, and I’ll stay even if he doesn’t come back; but I have no right to try and stop you.”
“No, that you haven’t; but I’m not going to behave worse than you do. Now, once more, are you going to show me the way out?”
“No,” said Aleck.
To his intense astonishment the midshipman threw himself back upon his rough couch again.
“All right,” he said; “I know what it means when you’re all alone in the stillness here and your brain’s at work conjuring up all sorts of horrible things. You’ve behaved very handsomely to me, old fellow, and I’m not going to be such a miserable beggar as to go and leave you in the lurch. If you stay, I stay too, and there’s an end of it. Now, then, snuff the candle and hunt out some prog. I’ve been so that everything I put into my mouth tasted like sawdust, but I feel now as if I could eat like anything. Look sharp.”
“Do you mean this?” cried Aleck, turning to his companion, excitedly.