“No. Nothing, thanks,” I answered. “But what time's breakfast, sir?”
“Oh, the boy'll call you,” he answered. “Is that your school satchel? Hey? What you carry your books in? Let's see it?”
“Oh,” I said, as lightly as I could, feeling that he was getting on ticklish ground. “I've not unpacked it yet. It's got all my things in it.”
By this time he was well within my cabin. “Why,” he said, “this strap's almost cut in two. Does your master let you bring your satchel to school in that state? How did it come to be cut like that? Hey?”
I made some confused remark about its having always been in that state; as it was an old satchel which my father used for a shooting-bag. I had never known boys to carry books in a satchel. That kind of school was unknown to me.
“Well,” he said, fingering the strap affectionately, as though he was going to lift it off my head, “you let me take it away with me. I've got men in this ship, who can mend a cut leather strap as neat as you've no idea of. They'd sew up a cut like them so as you'd hardly know it had been cut.”
I really feared that he would have the bag away from me by main force. But I rallied all my forces to save it. “I'm lagged now,” I said. “I haven't undone my things. I'll give it to you in the morning.”
It seemed to me that he looked at me rather hard when I said this; but he evidently thought “What can it matter? Tomorrow will serve just as well.” So he just gave a little laugh. “Right,” he said. “You turn in now. Give it to me in the morning. Good night, boy.”
“Good night,” I said, as he left the cabin, adding, under my breath, “Good riddance, too. You won't find quite so much when you come to examine this bag by daylight.” After he had gone—but not at once, as I wished not to make him suspicious,—I locked my cabin-door. Then I hung my tarred sea-coat on the door-hook, so that the flap entirely covered the keyhole. There were bolts on the door, but the upper one alone could be pushed home. With this in its place felt secure from spies. Yet not too secure. I was not certain that the bulkheads were without crannies from which I could be watched. The crack by the door-hinge might, for all I knew, give a very good view of the inside of the cabin. Thinking that I might still be under observation I decided to put off what I had to do until the very early morning, so I undressed myself for bed. I took care to put out the light before turning in, so that I might not be seen lashing the satchel round my neck with a length of spunyarn. I slept with my head upon it.