ttack the enemy before a bold advance was
made with the ham.

Was it strange then that after another glance round, and telling himself
that 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 glanced
half-guiltily at the doctor, who was bending over his plate and gilding
one of his own ham fragments with yolk of egg; but the doctor had very
heavy eyebrows, and from behind them he had been watching the lad's
acts, and as he saw him begin to cut another piece a little browner than
the last, he winked to himself twice, and then burst out with--

"I say, captain; I suppose when we get into smoother water we might get
a 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, modest
way chatted about the possibilities of success, but advised waiting
until the yacht was gliding steadily before a light breeze.

Still nobody turned to say a word to Jack, who sat and listened, growing
by degrees a little interested over some remarks that were made about
"the grains," which gradually began to take shape before him as a kind
of javelin made on the model of Neptune's trident, and which it seemed
had a long thin line attached to its shaft, and was thus used to dart at
large fish when they were seen playing about under the vessel's counter,
though what a vessel's counter was, and whether it bore any resemblance
to that used in a shop, the lad did not know.

It was somewhere about the time of the last remarks being made by the
mate, in which "the grains" were somehow connected with the bobstay,
that Jack proceeded to cut another fragment of that crisp juicy ham; but
he did not cut it, for the simple reason that there was none left to
utilise the knife and fork, which he laid together in his plate with a
sigh.

And somehow just the most filmy or shadowy idea of the possibility that
the steward might ask him if he would take a little more crossed his
mind, along with a kind of wondering thought that if the man did, what
he 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 looked
inquiringly round, and then tapped