"Very good; and why didn't you stay below altogether?"
"Because I wanted fresh air. I'm in a delicate state of health, you see; it doesn't do to stay in a confined place too long."
"Confound the binnacle!" said the captain; it was his usual oath when anything bothered him, and he could not make it out. "Confound the binnacle!—what a delicate-looking animal you are. I wish you had stayed where you were; your delicacy would have been all the same to me. Delicate, indeed!"
"Yes, very," said the stranger, coolly.
There was something so comic in the assertion of his delicateness of health, that we should all have laughed; but we were somewhat scared, and had not the inclination.
"How have you lived since you came on board?" inquired the captain.
"Very indifferently."
"But how? What have you eaten? and what have you drank?"
"Nothing, I assure you. All I did while was below was—"
"What?"