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Show "An' 'Ow Yer Feeling Now, Sir?" er Ghost, bound seal hunting to Japan." Ja-pan." "And who Is the captain? I must see him as soon as I am dressed." Johnson looked puzzled and embarrassed. embar-rassed. He hesitated while he groped in his vocabulary and framed a complete com-plete answer. "The cap'n is Wolf Larson, Lar-son, or so men call him. I never heard his other name. But you better speak soft with him. He Is mad this morning. morn-ing. The mate " But he did not finish. The cook had glided in. "Better sling yer 'ook out of 'ere, Yonson," he said. "The old man'll be wantin' yer on deck, an' this ayn't no d'y to fall foul of 'im." Johnson turned obediently to the door, at the same time, over the cook's shoulder, favoring me with an amazingly amaz-ingly solemn and portentous wink, as though to emphasize his interrupted remark and the need for me to be soft-spoken with the captain. Hanging over the cook's arm was a loose and crumpled array of evil-looking and sour-smelling garments. "They was put aw'y wet, sir," he vouchsafed explanation. "But you'll 'ave to make them do till I dry yours out by the fire." Clinging to the woodwork, stagger Ing with the roll of the ship, and aid ed by the cook, I managed to slip into a rough woolen undershirt. On the Instant my flesh was creeping and crawling from the harsh contact. He noticed my involuntary twitching and grimacing, and smirked: "1 only hope yer don't ever 'ave to get used to such as that in this life, 'cos you've got a bloomin' soft skin, that you 'ave, more like a lydy's than any I know of. I was bloomin' well sure you was a gentleman as soon as I set eyes on yer." I had taken a dislike to him at first, and as he helped to dress me this dislike dis-like increased. There was something repulsive about his touch. 1 shrank |