'It'll be Jacob's, sir. Oi allow he's waiting to finish his dinner.'
'No, no,' said I, 'that's not true ship's discipline. Fair must be fair aboard us,' and with some demonstration of warmth in my manner, I went to the poop rail and bawled for Jacob to come aft. The man promptly made his appearance, and the moment he had gripped the spokes of the wheel the ginger-coloured fellow who had been steering fled along the decks for his dinner, fleet as a hare with hunger. Abraham, with pencil and paper in hand, leaned upon the companion-cover while he pretended to be lost in calculating. Nakier and I stood looking on at Helga, who was seated on one side the skylight, the lid of which, being closed and lying flat, provided her with a table on which stood the chronometer, the volumes, the charts, and the other appliances she needed. She knew exactly what to do, and worked out her problems with a busy face and the blue of her eyes sweetened into violet by the shadow of her lashes. Deeply worried, miserably anxious as I was, on the eve of a project the failure of which was bound to signify an inhuman butchery of the three of us by the dark-skinned creatures we designed to betray, I could still find heart for admiration of the wonderful heroism of this girl. She was actively to share in our enterprise, and if failure followed, her doom might be even more fearful than ours; yet had her face been of marble carved into an incomparable counterfeit of a girl's countenance intent on a bit of arithmetic and nothing more, its passionlessness, its marvellous freedom from all expression of agitation, could not have been completer.
When she had completed her reckoning, she opened the chart which bore Captain Bunting's 'prickings,' as it is termed, and with rules and pencil continued the line to the situation of the ship at noon.
'That is where we are at this moment,' she exclaimed, pointing to the chart.
Nakier, with looks of astonishment and delight, peered.
'What d'ye make it, miss?' called Abraham.
She gave him the latitude—what it was has wholly escaped me.
'Roight,' he shouted, tearing up his bit of paper.
'Take these things below, Abraham,' said I, 'and then get your dinner. When you have done, come aft and take charge of the barque for half an hour. Miss Nielsen wishes to go to her cabin, and I am no sailor to be left alone with this craft.'
'Send Punmeamootty here with something for us to eat, if you please, Nakier.'