‘Picked him up aboard, or did yer know him before you stowed yourself away?’
‘My father was a client of his father’s,’ I replied.
‘Wither me if it ain’t a-coming stronger and stronger with you every day!’ exclaimed Mr. Stiles. ‘What are you going to turn out afore you’re done?’ he added, stopping in his work to look at me.
‘I tell you vhat it vhas, sir,’ said Frank. ‘Dis vhas no ordinary shentleman. Dis vhas a young nobleman in disguise.’
‘Hold your yaw-yawing!’ cried the steward. ‘Who’s a-talking to you? You’re always a-putting in, you are, and a-stopping the work.’
The cuddy breakfast-bell was rung, and at half-past eight the captain and officers seated themselves. I received a sort of nod from Lieutenant Chimmo, and Captain Barrett looked at me pleasantly. Both men suggested that they regarded me as coming near to their social level. This was odd, for, as a rule, people rather shrink from and give the cold shoulder to gentle-folks who have been sunk by fortune into getting their bread in mean positions such as mine was on board that ship. Captain Sutherland never heeded me, but sometimes I thought the doctor’s stern eyes rested upon me with an expression of inquiry. The cuddy was full of sunlight; the glory of the morning sparkled in glass and crystal and plate, and the radiance was made lovely by the soft atmospheric azure tint which floated into it off the blue sea.
‘When do you start your school, doctor?’ said Captain Barrett.
‘On Monday,’ was the answer.
‘Captain,’ said Lieutenant Chimmo, addressing the commander of the ship, ‘did you see Barney Abram washing himself this morning? What a chest! What arms! Cut his head and legs off, fossilise what’s left, chuck the torso into the Tiber, and when dredged up it would be sworn to as the most magnificent fragment of ancient art in the wide world.’
‘A pity, Ellice,’ said Captain Barrett, ‘that you object to Barney stepping aft occasionally to give Chimmo and me a few tips in the grandest of all sciences.’