Page:Barbour--Lost island.djvu/183

 eh? Come on boards me hearties, and wait till I change, else my wife will be nursing a pneumonia patient. Ye'd better slip them wet things off, too. There will be something on board for ye to wear till yours dry in the engine-room."

Tempest lit his pipe and smoked placidly while the two were changing.

"Now," said Captain Grummitt, emerging a few moments later in dry garments, "ye can't put thanks in the bank. What d 'ye mean by hanging around my ship, anyway?"

Good humor was now shining in his rubicund countenance.

"Looking for work," Dave said quietly.

"And I don't know that ye deserve it," commented the skipper, "having just done my wife out of her insurance money. Are ye both sailors?"

"Yes."

"Well, if ye fancy the notion of knocking about