Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/237

 "O no! he has just awakened, and says he is very much better, and so peckish. What does he mean by that?"

"Peckish, my dear, is hungry," explained Robin, as they went into the cave together.

They found that Johnson was not only peckish but curious, and thirsting for information as well as meat and drink. As his pulse was pronounced by Dr. Shipton to be all right, he was gratified with a hearty supper, a long pull at the tankard of sparkling water, and a good deal of information and small-talk about the pirates, the wreck of the Triton, and the science of electricity.

"But you have not told us yet," said Sam, "how it was that you came to fall into the hands of the pirates."

"I can soon tell 'ee that," said the seaman, turning slowly on his couch.

"Lie still, now, you must not move," said Sam, remonstratively.

"But that not movin', doctor, is wuss than downright pain, by a long way. Hows'ever, I s'pose I must obey orders—anyhow you 've got the whip hand o' me just now. Well, as I was sayin', the yarn ain't a long un. I sailed from the port o' Lun'on in a tea-clipper, of which I was the cook; got out to Hong-Kong all right, shipped a cargo, and off again for old England. We hadn't got far