Part 22 (2/2)
”That explains it, then I don't blame Troop any I just said I wouldn't work--on a Banker, too--and of course he hit ”
”My poor darling! They must have abused you horribly”
”Dunno quite Well, after that, I saw a light”
Cheyne slapped his leg and chuckled This was going to be a boy after his own hungry heart He had never seen precisely that twinkle in Harvey's eye before
”And the old ave me ten and a half a month; he's paid ht in I can't do a man's work yet But I can handle a dory '--, dear--and I can 'most bait up a trawl, and I know my ropes, of course; and I can pitch fish till the cows coreat on old Josephus, and I'll show you how I can clear coffee with a piece of fish-skin, and--I think I'll have another cup, please Say, you've no notion what a heap of work there is in ten and a half a ht and a half, my son,” said Cheyne
”'That so? You never told me, sir”
”You never asked, Harve I'll tell you about it some day, if you care to listen Try a stuffed olive”
”Troop says thein the world is to find out how the next ain We ell fed, though Best reat man And Dan--that's his son--Dan's my partner And there's Uncle Salters and his manures, an' he reads Josephus He's sure I'm crazy yet And there's poor little Penn, and he is crazy You mustn't talk to him about Johnstown, because--And, oh, youJack and Manuel Manuel saved ee He can't talk, and hauled me in”
”I wonder your nervous system isn't completely wrecked,” said Mrs
Cheyne
”What for,and I slept like a dead an to think of her visions of a corpse rocking on the salty seas She went to her state-roo his indebtedness
”You can depend uponI can for the crowd, Harve
They see”
”Best in the Fleet, sir Ask at Gloucester,” said Harvey ”But Disoblieves still he's curedcrazy Dan's the only one I've let on to about you, and our private cars and all the rest of it, and I'm not quite sure Dan believes I want to paralyse 'em to-morrow Say, can't they run the 'Constance' over to Gloucester? Mama don't look fit to beout by to-morrow Wouverman takes our fish You see, we're first off the Banks this season, and it's four twenty-five a quintal We held out till he paid it They want it quick”
”You mean you'll have to work to-morrow, then?”
”I told Troop I would I'ht the tallies with reasy notebook with an air of importance that made his father choke ”There isn't but three--no--two ninety-four or five quintal ested Cheyne, to see what Harvey would say
”Can't, sir I'm tally-ures than Dan Troop's a hty just ht, how'll you fix it?”
Harvey looked at the clock, which marked twenty past eleven
”Then I'll sleep here till three and catch the four o'clock freight
They let us men from the Fleet ride free, as a rule”