“But how can he, when we’ve got no money?” asked Tom.
“That makes no difference,” said Jorrocks, with an expressive wink that spoke volumes. “You’ll see if he don’t make you work ’em out, and that’ll be as good to him as if you paid him a shiner or two. You jest wait till we gets to Noocastle, my lad, and I specs you’ll larn what coal-screening is afore you’ve done with it.”
“And what if we refuse?” inquired Tom, to whom this grimy prospect did not appear over-pleasant.
“Why, there’ll be larruping,” replied the boatswain, significantly, with another expressive wink, and Tom was silenced; but, it was only for a moment, as he looked up again the instant afterwards with his usual bright expression.
“Perhaps it will be wisest to make the best of a bad job, Martin, eh?” he said, cheerfully. “We have only to thank ourselves for getting into this scrape, and the most sensible thing we can do now is to grin and bear whatever we’ve got to put up with.”
This exactly agreed with my own conclusions, and I signified my assent to the sound philosophy of Tom’s remark with my usual nod; but, as for Jorrocks, he was completely carried away with enthusiasm.
“Right you are, my hearty!” he cried, wringing Tom’s hand in the grip of his brawny fist as if he would shake it off. “That’s the sort o’ lad for me! You’ve an old head on young shoulders, you have—you’ll get on with the skipper, no fear; and me and my mates will make you both as com’able aboard as we can; theer, I can say no better, can I?”
“No,” replied Tom, in an equally hearty tone.
The Saucy Sall being only of small tonnage, she had a correspondingly small crew, seven men and a boy—including the skipper and Jorrocks, and excluding ourselves for the present—comprising “all hands.”
Of this number, one was aft now, taking his turn at the wheel, with the skipper standing beside him, while a couple of others were lounging about, ready to slacken off or haul taut the sheets; and the remainder, whose watch below it was, were seeing to the preparations for dinner—a savoury smell coming out from the fo’c’s’le heads, that was most appetising to Tom and me, who were both longing to have once more a good hot meal.