"Meant what?" she said, stopping and turning around, facing me squarely.
"That you didn't care for any one?" I stammered, and I remember how my face burned.
She let me hold her hand and looked up into my eyes.
"I never said any such thing—that I didn't care for any one," she replied.
"Then do you, Jennie?"
She made no answer, and let her eyes fall. I let go her hand and drew myself up, for I was uncertain.
"I say, Rolling, what the deuce are you two doing?" bawled the voice of Jackwell from the companion, and then I realized that there was little privacy aboard a ship of three hundred tons.
We went aft guiltily, and met the rest coming up the companion with bottled beer and sandwiches which were served as refreshments. Chairs were set out by the old mate and two harpooners who had come aft, and the cook spruced himself up to get us out a plum-duff for lunch. From where we sat behind the poop rise, nothing could be seen forward, and here we ate and drank while Jackwell laughed and talked incessantly, being a completely changed man from the sarcastic and somewhat truculent skipper I had known for the last three months. It was finally suggested that as the awning was stretched, the plum-duff could be served on deck better than below in the stuffy cabin, so here we enjoyed the meal.
XXII
While we ate, Jackwell expanded more and more under the influence of duff and beer. He leaned back in his chair and gazed at the mainmast.