CHAPTER TEN.
JACK BEGINS TO COME ROUND.
"Oh dear, I do feel so ashamed of myself," said the doctor at breakfastthat morning. "Edward, bring me another egg, and some more of thatham."
"Well, sir, if you do," said the captain, smiling, "I ought to be, butI'm not. More coffee, Sir John?"
"Thanks, no, I'm taking tea. Jack, my boy, will you try another cup?"
The lad hesitated for a moment, and then drew aside for Edward to refillhis cup, with which he had been eating sparingly of some well-madetoast.
"Find that rather stale, Mr Jack?" said the captain.
"No; it is very nice," said the lad. "Ah, the toasting takes it off.Four days out. That's as long as we go with the same bread. Beginmaking our own to-morrow."
Just then Edward handed Doctor Instow a goodly rasher of broiled ham,upon which was a perfectly poached egg; and directly after the man cameround behind Jack, and quietly placed before him, with a whisper ofwarning that the plate was very hot, another rasher of ham, and at thefirst sight of it the lad began to shrink, but at the second glance,consequent upon a brave desire not to show his repugnance, he saw thatit was a different kind of rasher to the doctor's, and that there was noegg. It was small and crisp and thin, of a most beautiful brown, withscarcely any fat, and showing not a drop in the hot plate. There was apeculiar aroma, too, rising from it, grateful and appetising, and aftersipping at his fresh hot cup of tea--the second--twice, Jack broke offanother fragment of his crisp toast and ate it slowly.
A minute passed away, his four companions eating in sea-going fashion,which is rather costly to the person that caters, and they were talkingaloud meantime, but every one present made a point of not taking theslightest notice of the sensitive lad.
That hot tea at the first mouthful of the first cup was nauseating, andJack glanced toward the door and waited before venturing upon a second.But that second mouthful was not so bad, and it seemed to him that thecaptain certainly had good tea provided. Then Jack had broken off ascrap of the brown toast and eaten it, feeling at the end of a minute ortwo that he had never before known what well-made toast was like.
And so he had gone on very slowly, but certainly surely, till that pieceof broiled ham--just such a piece as might tempt an invalid--was placedbefore him by Edward, who winked afterwards at the steward.
Jack would have resisted with scorn the suggestion that he was aninvalid, and he was in utter ignorance of the doctor having entered intoa conspiracy with the steward and cook just before they sat down; butthat triumvirate had conspired all the same, and the result was that drytoast and that thin shaving of brown ham, which from the moment it wasplaced under his nose began to tempt him.
What wonder! Three days lying in a berth aboard ship, three days ofhardly touching food; and now at last sitting at a pleasantbreakfast-table in an exasperating appetite-sharpening atmosphere, whichcame in through the open window along with the bright sunshine, whilefour people were cheerily chatting and eating away like men who knew howgood breakfast can be.
Then, too, there was that insidious preparation--that sending in ofskirmishers of dry toast to attack the enemy before a bold advance wasmade with the ham.
Was it strange then that after another glance round, and telling himselfthat it was really to keep the others from thinking him too squeamish,Jack daintily cut off a tiny brown corner of the fragrant, saline,well-flavoured ham, and placed it in his mouth?
No: it did not disgust him in the least, and he ate it, and then glancedhalf-guiltily at the doctor, who was bending over his plate and gildingone of his own ham fragments with yolk of egg; but the doctor had veryheavy eyebrows, and from behind them he had been watching the lad'sacts, and as he saw him begin to cut another piece a little browner thanthe last, he winked to himself twice, and then burst out with--
"I say, captain; I suppose when we get into smoother water we might geta bit of fresh fish for the table?"
"Oh, yes, something of the mackerel kind; eh, Bartlett?"
The mate entered into the conversation directly, and in a quiet, modestway chatted about the possibilities of success, but advised waitinguntil the yacht was gliding steadily before a light breeze.
Still nobody turned to say a word to Jack, who sat and listened, growingby degrees a little interested over some remarks that were made about"the grains," which gradually began to take shape before him as a kindof javelin made on the model of Neptune's trident, and which it seemedhad a long thin line attached to its shaft, and was thus used to dart atlarge fish when they were seen playing about under the vessel's counter,though what a vessel's counter was, and whether it bore any resemblanceto that used in a shop, the lad did not know.
It was somewhere about the time of the last remarks being made by themate, in which "the grains" were somehow connected with the bobstay,that Jack proceeded to cut another fragment of that crisp juicy ham; buthe did not cut it, for the simple reason that there was none left toutilise the knife and fork, which he laid together in his plate with asigh.
And somehow just the most filmy or shadowy idea of the possibility thatthe steward might ask him if he would take a little more crossed hismind, along with a kind of wondering thought that if the man did, whathe would say in reply.
But the man did not ask, and Jack glanced at the toast-rack, which was,like his tea-cup, empty.
There was a pause now in the conversation, the captain lookedinquiringly round, and then tapped the table lightly and said grace.
"Like to see how we take observations by and by, Mr Jack?" he said.
"With a telescope?" said Jack quickly, feeling relieved that no oneasked him how he felt now.
"Well, yes, we do use a little glass in the business attached to thesextant. But you thought I meant observations of the land?"
"Yes."
"No, we are far away from land now. We take our observations from thesun at twelve o'clock, and then I can give you the exact spot where weare upon the chart."
"That's curious," said Jack.
"Yes, sir; curious, but quite commonplace now. It's worth noticingthough how cleverly scientific men have worked it out for us, and whatwith our instruments, the chronometer, and the nautical almanac, we onlywant a bit of sunshine to be able to find out our bearings and neverfeel afraid of being lost."
"I'll come and see how it's done."
"Do, sir, at noon; and you'll like to see the heaving of the log aswell."
The captain was right; the wind dropped--and quite suddenly--a good hourbefore noon, and Jack found himself beginning to feel a little hungryand hollow inside just about the time when the sextant was brought out,but he felt interested in what was being done, and found himselfbeginning to think that perhaps after all there might be somethingduring the voyage to compensate for the deprivations he was to sufferwith respect to his regular studies and his books.
It was curious, too, how little he began to think of the rising andfalling of the vessel, as she glided over the waves, which were roughenough, and sparkled brilliantly in the sunshine; but the fore-part ofthe deck was dry now and warm, while the yacht looked picturesque andcheery, with the crew busy over various matters connected with thenavigation.
But nobody made the slightest allusion now to his having been ill, orasked how he felt, and the colour came into the lad's cheeks once as hecaught his father's eyes, which somehow seemed to wear a more contentedand satisfied look, but he only said quietly--
"I say, Jack, lad, do you think we could sit down in a chair now withoutbeing shot out?"
Jack felt obliged to reply, so he said--
"Let's try."