commander of the ship had to say. "It was jess as
good as we always has."

"Was it thoroughly cooked?"

"Yes, sah--I don't 'low nuffin to go from dis yere galley 'less it am
well cooked."

"Are your pots and kettles clean?"

"Yes, sah--yo' can see fo' yourself, sah."

The captain did see, and moreover he knew that Jeff was usually a
careful and conscientious culinary artist who always gave the men the
best his stock afforded.

"Well, be careful of what you cook and how you cook it after this," said
Captain Ponsberry.

"Would yo' mind tellin' me, sah, who is kicking, sah?" asked Jeff,
respectfully.

"Semmel says he was made sick by what he ate."

"Huh, dat scab!" grunted Jeff. "He ain't no 'count at all, he ain't!"
And the cook turned away in disgust.

"It looks to me as if Semmel was trying to make trouble all around,"
said Tom Grandon, when he and the captain and Larry talked the matter
over.

"I never liked that man from the first time I clapped eyes on him," came
from Larry. "He's a sneak--and worse."

"I shall watch him pretty closely after this," said Captain Ponsberry.
"One discontented fellow like him can upset the whole ship if he sets
out to do it."

"They can't complain of the grub," went on the first mate. "It's as good
as on any merchantman, and better than the law requires."

"I guess it was the deck-swabbing that gave him the stomach ache," said
Larry, and this made the captain and Grandon smile.

The next day when the sailors sat down to their dinner two or three of
them sniffed suspiciously at the food they were eating.

"This don't taste just right to me," said Shamhaven. "The meat tastes
decayed."

"And the vegetables ain't much better," put in Conroy,--a sturdy
Irish-American, who was one of the best seamen on the schooner.

"Dat dinner am fust-class," cried Jeff. "I ain't gwine to stand yere an'
see you growlin' at it."

"It certainly tastes a bit off, Jeff," put in Jack Wilbur. "Taste it
yourself."

The cook did so, and his face looked doubtful for a moment.

"Guess dat needs a little salt an' pepper," he said, slowly. It did not
taste nearly as good as he had anticipated.

As there was nothing else to do, and they were hungry, the men ate the
meal, grumbling to themselves as they did so. Luke said but little and
ate sparingly, and his example was followed by Cal Vincent.

The captain, Grandon, and Larry ate in the cabin and the dinner served
to them was first-class i