"What have you for dinner, Pitts?" asked the captain.
"Baked fish, Captain, in two pieces; for he was too long to go into my oven," replied the cook.
"All right. Take the wheel, Clingman, and make the course due south."
"Due south, sir," repeated the wheelman.
The party hastened to the after cabin; for they were hungry after their long tramp, though they had taken a light lunch with them. The fish, "in two pieces," was placed before the captain; while Pitts stood by his side, ready to pass the plates, and hear any comments the captain might make on the principal viand.
The odor from the steaming fish was emphatically agreeable to the hungry hunters, and so was the soft divan to their tired legs. Scott helped the members of the party to liberal portions of the dainty dish, and without pausing for manners they began to partake. When the captain had tasted the fish, he stopped short, and looked at Pitts. Then he reached out his right hand to him.
"Your hand, Pitts!" and the cook took it, his face wreathed in smiles. "You have cooked a dish here, Pitts, which is fit for any king on the continent of Europe, to say nothing of Asia."
The rest of the party applauded vigorously, and every one of them, following the example of the captain, took the cook by the hand, and bestowed additional praise upon him; and Louis declared that he could not have done better if he had served his time as a cuisinier in the Grand Hotel in Paris. But the most telling tribute to the skill of the cook was in the amount consumed; and the captain expressed a fear that the engineer and five seamen would have to "kiss the cook."
"It is only a woman cook that gets served in that way, and then not unless she is good looking," replied Pitts, laughing. "But you need have no fear, Captain, and the second table will have no occasion to kiss the cook, even it were one of the pretty girls we saw at the long-house below; for I have another fish in the oven, and it will be done by the time they are ready for it."
"That's right, Pitts; look out for the men as well as you do for the rest of us," added the captain. "Now, fellows, I am going to the wheel; and I want to see all of you in the fore cabin, for I have something to say, and we may have occasion to vote."