Bob went out, and in two more trips brought the dishes all in. The next thing was to wash them. It was not a very agreeable job, for the dishes were greasy, and the cook did not wash them as though he intended to get the grease all off. He found a cloth, to which the darky directed his attention, and forthwith proceeded to wipe them.
"You'll have to handle your fingers a little more easy than that, 'cause we's bound to go to work an' get dinner right away," said the cook; but by this time the second mate had gone away and he began to speak in his ordinary tone of voice. "You mustn't think hard of anything that I say to you while the second mate is around. I don't feel that way toward you at all."
"I know you don't," replied Bob. "That second mate acts as though he hadn't been well brought up."
"Well, we'll never mind him. Is you the boy they have been taking all the money away from? If you is, you ain't got any business here."
"Yes, I guess I am the one you have reference to. I was kidnapped by one I had no reason to fear, and brought aboard this ship insensible."
"'Fore de land! I never heard of such doings before. An' you did not sign the articles?"
"I never saw them. I don't know where the vessel is bound."
"If I was in your place, boy, I'd desert."
"That's what I mean to do, although I haven't said anything to my friend about it. Do you know the first port at which we will touch?"
"No, I don't."