After a time, Bob’s sobs ceased and he began to think of something else; something that affected him, for the moment, even more strongly than his fears.
“I’m awfully hungry, Dick,” he said. “Have you got any more bread-and-cheese left?”
“No, not a scrap,” was the melancholy answer. “I giv’ yer half, share and share alike; and I’ve ate every crumb o’ mine!”
“Isn’t there anything in the locker?”
“Nothing, but the Cap’en’s hatchet! Don’t you bear in mind as how I scrubbed her out afore we started?”
“Yes, so you did, I recollect,” replied Bob moodily, his appetite being well-nigh unbearable from its insatiable gnawing. “How do you feel, Dick?”
“I feels as if I could eat the h’elephant we seed in the circus.”
This made Bob laugh hysterically.
“I think I could, too,” he said, between his paroxysms of laughter and sobs. “I never felt so hungry in my life before!”
Another interval of silence followed this confession.