'Why not?'
'Nowhere to go, sir.'
'Have you no parents, or relations, or any one else you can go and stay with?'
'I'm an orphing, sir,' the man rather flummoxed him by replying. 'I'd rather stay aboard the ship than go an' see me old uncle wot lives in Peckham, sir. 'E's married agen, sir, an' 'is wife keeps a fried-fish shop.'
Tickle smiled and passed on. 'And what about you?' he queried, coming to Martin.
'Ain't got no money, sir.'
'Have you been to the paymaster for an advance?'
'Yessir.'
'What did he say?'
'Said I was in debt, sir.'