He was on the bridge; and after we had brushed each other down we went for'ard, feeling awfully cheap and disreputable.
"Now, you two youngsters must understand," he began. "I'll let you off this time, but don't let me ever catch you shirking your work again, whether you are sea-sick or not. Now, go below (I think I saw a twinkle in his eye) and get some breakfast. The Laird has sighted those pirate destroyers and we are chasing them, but I shall not want either of you for half an hour, so make the best of your time."
"Where are they, sir?" we asked eagerly.
"Right ahead, but we can't see them yet. They've only just sighted them from the Laird."
The range of view from a destroyer is very limited, and it was the Laird's mast-head look-out who had discovered them.
"Couldn't we stay, sir?" we asked, forgetting all about our hunger in the excitement.
"No. Go down below; and you're not to come up again for half an hour."
Even with our excitement we managed to tuck in pretty well when at last the officers' cook did send us down something to eat—some eggs and bacon—from the galley, and we made a loaf of bread and a pot of jam look precious small before we had finished.
We waited impatiently for the thirty minutes to go by and then ran up to the bridge, and by this time could see a cloud of smoke on the horizon ahead of us.
We were tearing along with a vengeance, "No. 2" coming up astern, and the Laird several miles behind us.