'Anything better than lying like a log,' cried Mrs. Burke, with a short swallow in her speech. 'I had hoped from your face there was a ship in sight.'
'And so did I,' I exclaimed.
Mr. Owen sat down suddenly, and again buried his hand in his hair.
'But this is as good as a ship being in sight,' cried the captain irritable on a sudden. 'I want to blow north where ships are to be fallen in with, and we're something to see now, with a thirty foot hoist of canvas on top ten foot of freeboard; whereas, before—but let's get something to eat.'
We seated ourselves. Mr. Owen took a corner chair and spoke not a word for some time, till at last, on the captain saying that if he fell in with a vessel he would offer handsome sums for a tow, the doctor said abruptly:
'To where?'
The captain eyed him with an unfeeling pause of contempt, and then answered:
'That would not rest with you, sir.'
'I must request you to transfer me, if we fall in with a ship,' said Mr. Owen.