"Hand it up; I'll help you." He received the bucket and placed it on the deck, and the man sprang through the hatch and replaced the cover.
"Take it into my cabin," said the captain, "and bring it on deck when I send you for it."
And this was done, and the man went on deck whilst the captain entered his berth and closed the door.
"I have drawed enough to swim ye," said the cabin-attendant to Bill.
"'Tain't like being in port, though," answered Bill, whilst Jim and several others like him grinned at the news of the grog. "When I takes a drop, I'm for dancin', and where are the gurls?"
"Ah!" echoed Jim in a sigh born of lobscouse and the livid fat of diseased pork.
Finding that the captain did not make his appearance, Hardy kept the deck with Julia. Again they talked of the old home, the drunken stepmother, the withering indifference of the retired Commander R. N. to the loneliness and helplessness of his child, and to her prospects in life.
Hardy spoke of it with heat, and the girl's face was often hot with the passion of memory.
"What should I have done without you?" she said once and again, and still again. "But if I cannot find employment in Australia, I must return in this ship," and she looked at him with the eyes of a sweetheart.