When he told his wife she seemed extraordinarily callous.
"Serves him right," she said.
And it was wonderful how the crew of the Star took the news. They had never seemed so cheerful. They grinned when Watchett came aboard.
"This is an 'orrid circumstance," said Watchett. "I never lost a man before, not even when I was wrecked in the Violet. And this a dead calm!"
"Your men aren't happy," said Mrs. Ryder, "and you don't try to make 'em. If I give you three seven-pound tins of marmalade and some butter, will you serve it out to them?"
"'YOUR MEN AREN'T HAPPY,' SAID MRS. RYDER."
But Watchett shook his head angrily.
"I'll not cocker no men up," he declared; "not if they all goes overboard and leaves me and the missis to take 'er 'ome. And what's marmalade against 'eat like this?"
He mopped a melancholy brow and sighed.