In the meantime, he had tried four times to
stow away in different vessels, and four times had been discovered
and handed back to starvation. The fifth time was lucky; and you may
judge if he were pleased to be aboard ship again, at his old work,
and with duff twice a week. He was, said Alick, 'a devil for the
duff.' Or if devil was not the word, it was one if anything
stronger.
The difference in the conduct of the two was remarkable. The
Devonian was as willing as any paid hand, swarmed aloft among the
first, pulled his natural weight and firmly upon a rope, and found
work for himself when there was none to show him. Alick, on the
other hand, was not only a skulker in the brain, but took a humorous
and fine gentlemanly view of the transaction. He would speak to me
by the hour in ostentatious idleness; and only if the bo's'un or a
mate came by, fell-to languidly for just the necessary time till they
were out of sight. 'I'm not breaking my heart with it,' he remarked.
Once there was a hatch to be opened near where he was stationed; he
watched the preparations for a second or so suspiciously, and then,
'Hullo,' said he, 'here's some real work coming - I'm off,' and he
was gone that moment.
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