“Suppose we go this evening, when we strike off work?” said I—“that is, Hiram, if you don’t mind my coming with you?”
“Nary a bit, Cholly,” he replied good-heartedly to this tentative question of mine; “glad to hev ye along o’ me, seeing as how we both hev ben a-prospectin’ the line o’ country already.”
“All right,” I exclaimed joyfully. “We’ll have a good hunt for the cave. I wouldn’t be surprised if we find it near the place where I saw the doves, by the pool between the hills over there.”
“Most like, b’y,” said he, bustling about the galley and going on with his culinary work; “but hyar comes the stooard. Don’t ye tell him nuthin’ o’ what we hev ben talkin’ on, or I guess the coon ’ll be wantin’ to jine company, an’ I don’t wants him, I doesn’t. He’s a won’erful slimy sort o’ cuss, an’ since he’s ben skeart by Sam Jedfoot’s ghostess he hez ben a durned sight too mealy-mouthed fur me!”
“I won’t speak a word to him,” said I. “He’s a queer sort of man, and I don’t like him either.”
The entrance of the Welshman thus stopped our further conversation; for, although Morris Jones seemed anxious to talk, Hiram only spoke in monosyllables, giving curt answers, so that the steward in, the end became silent too, busying himself in cooking the skipper’s dinner at one, fireplace, while the American attended to the men’s tea at the other—filling the copper with the proper ingredients, as mentioned before, and diligently stirring its contents till it boiled.
At ‘two bells,’ later on, in the first dog-watch, work was abandoned for the day, all hands coming aboard to have their tea, Tom Bullover amongst them.
“May I tell him?” I said to Hiram, when I saw the carpenter coming forward, after slinging himself over the bulwarks; “may I tell Tom where we are going, and ask him to come too?”
“I don’t mind, I guess,” replied Hiram—“the more the merrier!”
Tom was perfectly willing; and so, half an hour later, the three of us started on our expedition, getting over the side of the ship while the rest of the crew were still busy with their pannikins and beef and biscuit, so departing unobserved.