“There’s no use of sending the Judge, anyhow,” said Raleigh, fearing by the glitter that came into the eye of the commander that trouble might ensue unless pacificatory measures were resorted to. “He’s accustomed to weighing everything carefully, and cannot be rushed into a decision. If he saw any evidence, he’d have to sit on it a week before reaching a conclusion. What we need here more than anything else is an expert seaman, a lookout, and I nominate Shem. He has sailed under his father, and I have it on good authority that he is a nautical expert.”
Holmes hesitated for an instant. He was considering the necessity of disciplining the recalcitrant Blackstone, but he finally yielded.
“Very well,” he said. “Shem be it. Bo’sun, pipe Shem on deck, and tell him that general order number one requires him to report at the mizzentop right away, and that immediately he sees anything he shall come below and make it known to me. As for the rest of us, having a very considerable appetite, I do now decree that it is dinner-time. Shall we go below?”
SHEM IN THE LOOKOUT
“I don’t think I care for any, thank you,” said Raleigh. “Fact is—ah—I dined last week, and am not hungry.”
Noah laughed. “Oh, come below and watch us eat, then,” he said. “It’ll do you good.”
But there was no reply. Raleigh had plunged head first into his state-room, which fortunately happened to be on the upper deck. The rest of the spirits repaired below to the saloon, where they were soon engaged in an animated discussion of such viands as the larder provided.
“This,” said Dr. Johnson, from the head of the table, “is what I call comfort. I don’t know that I am so anxious to recover the House-boat, after all.”
“Nor I,” said Socrates, “with a ship like this to go off cruising on, and with such a larder. Look at the thickness of that puree, Doctor—”