'You are right,' he exclaimed. 'Overboard with it, my lads. This should never have been served out to you. 'Tis the cook's fault to boil such offal. Mr. Green, see that the starboard watch have some canned mutton for their dinner at once.'
The men emptied the contents of the kid over the side, looking very well pleased, and then went forward.
'They have no champions, my wife says,' exclaimed Captain Burke to me with a smile. 'Poor fellows! But I'll tell you what, Miss Otway: you'll never find Jack's rights wrong for the want of Jack taking the trouble to keep them right.'
CHAPTER V THE HIDDEN LIFE OF THE SHIP
I devoted the afternoon of the first day of my recovery from sickness to a journal which I meant should serve as a letter both for my father and Mr. Moore, to be transmitted home in sheets as the opportunity occurred. My old nurse told me that her husband had written to my father whilst in the Channel, and had sent the letter ashore at Plymouth by a smack; so they would have news of me at home down to two days before.
I was so much interested in the little incident of the tainted meat I have told you of, that I asked Captain Burke this day to let me taste a specimen of the beef sailors were fed on. He laughed and said: