“Have you anything particular to do, Richard?”
“What has anybody to do here?”
“Wait a little, then. I want to speak to you when this business is over.”
“Are you going to give me any more good advice?”
“Don’t look at me in that sour way, Richard. I am going to ask you a question about something which concerns yourself.”
Wardour yielded without a word more. He returned to his chest, and cynically composed himself to slumber. The casting of the lots went on rapidly among the officers and men. In another half-hour chance had decided the question of “Go” or “Stay” for all alike. The men left the hut. The officers entered the inner apartment for a last conference with the bed-ridden captain of the Sea-mew. Wardour and Crayford were left together, alone.
Chapter 9.
Crayford touched his friend on the shoulder to rouse him. Wardour looked up, impatiently, with a frown.
“I was just asleep,” he said. “Why do you wake me?”