I manage to get meat for
my patrons all the year round. Don't I? I am not catering for a dam' lot
of coolies: Have another chop captain.... No? You, boy--take away!"

He threw himself back and waited grimly for the curry. The half-closed
jalousies darkened the room pervaded by the smell of fresh whitewash:
a swarm of flies buzzed and settled in turns, and poor Mrs. Schomberg's
smile seemed to express the quintessence of all the imbecility that had
ever spoken, had ever breathed, had ever been fed on infamous buffalo
meat within these bare walls. Schomberg did not open his lips till he
was ready to thrust therein a spoonful of greasy rice. He rolled his
eyes ridiculously before he swallowed the hot stuff, and only then broke
out afresh.

"It is the most degrading thing. They take the dish up to the wheelhouse
for him with a cover on it, and he shuts both the doors before he begins
to eat. Fact! Must be ashamed of himself. Ask the engineer. He can't
do without an engineer--don't you see--and as no respectable man can be
expected to put up with such a table, he allows them fifteen dollars
a month extra mess money. I assure you it is so! You just ask Mr.
Ferdinand da Costa. That's the engineer he has now. You may have seen
him about my place, a delicate dark young man, with very fine eyes and a
little moustache. He arrived here a year ago from Calcutta. Between you
and me, I guess the money-lenders there must have been after him. He
rushes here for a meal every chance he can get, for just please tell me
what satisfaction is that for a well-educated young fellow to feed all
alone in his cabin--like a wild beast? That's what Falk expects his
engineers to put up with for fifteen dollars extra. And the rows on
board every time a little smell of cooking gets about the deck! You
wouldn't believe! The other day da Costa got the cook to fry a steak for
him--a turtle steak it was too, not beef at all--and the fat caught
or something. Young da Costa himself was telling me of it here in this
room. 'Mr. Schomberg'--says he-'if I had let a cylinder cover blow off
through the skylight by my negligence Captain Falk couldn't have been
more savage. He frightened the cook so that he won't put anything on the
fire for me now.' Poor da Costa had tears in his eyes. Only try to put
yourself in his place, captain: a sensitive, gentlemanly young fellow.
Is he expected to eat his food raw? But that's your Falk all over. Ask
any one you like. I sup