"I am not quite of your way of thinking; but the earth is not made of stock-fish. Did you happen to fall in with any butter?"
"Some, sir, that is scarcely fit to slush a mast with, and I do think, one of the most atrocious cheeses, sir, it was ever my bad fortune to meet with. I do not wonder the Africans left the wreck."
"You followed their example, of course, Mr. Saunders, and left the cheese."
"I followed my own judgment, sir, for I would not stay in a ship with such a cheese, Captain Truck, sir, even to have the honour of serving under so great a commander as yourself. I think it no wonder that vessel was wrecked! Even the sharks would abandon her. The very thoughts of her impurities, sir, make me feel unsettled in the stomach."
The captain nodded his head in approbation of this sentiment, called for a coal, and then ordered breakfast. The meal was silent, thoughtful, and even sad; every one was thinking of the poor Danes and their sad fate, while they who had been on the plain had the additional subject of the murdered man for their contemplation.
"Is it possible to do nothing to redeem these poor people, father, from captivity?" Eve at length demanded.
"I have been thinking of this, my child; but I see no other method than to acquaint their government of their situation."
"Might we not contribute something from our own means to that effect? Money, I fancy, is the chief thing necessary."
The gentlemen looked at each other in approbation, though a reluctance to be the first to speak kept most of them silent.
"If a hundred pounds, Miss Effingham, will be useful," Sir George Templemore said, after the pause had continued an awkward minute, laying a banknote of that amount on the table, "and you will honour us by becoming the keeper of the redemption money, I have great pleasure in making the offer."