Evans laughed, “I guess you’re right. I just feel good. I wish I knew what was the matter with that damned barometer, though.”
“Maybe that little chain’s stuck, like I said.”
“Might be.”
Martin joined them. “The passengers look fine today,” he said.
“The Chief say everything’s working in his department?”
“That’s what he said. Smitty’s got breakfast ready. They’re eating now.”
Evans remembered that he had had nothing to eat for almost a day. “I think I’ll go below,” he said.
“O.K., Skipper.” Bervick went over to the chart table and Martin went into his cabin.
The galley, Evans saw, was much more cheerful today. Smitty had cleaned the deck and straightened the unbroken china. Several deckhands sat at the galley table talking loudly. You could tell, thought Evans, how long a man had been up here by the way he talked. The longer a man was in the islands the longer his stories were. Talking was the only thing to do when there was no liquor.
The passengers were eating heartily.