brown you are!’
In spite of an animal revulsion at the catch of the scent that hung about Jack’s coat - never was there a more unlucky present - Stephen felt a warmth in his heart. His face displayed no more than a severe questioning, professional look, however, and he said, ‘Jack, what have you been doing to yourself? You are thin, grey - costive, no doubt. You have lost another couple of stone: the skin under your eyes is a disagreeable yellow. Has the bullet-?wound been giving trouble? Come, take off your shirt. I was never happy that I had extracted all the lead; my probe still seemed to grate on something.’
‘No, no. It has quite healed over again. I am very well. It is only that I don’t sleep. Toss, turn, can’t get off, then ill dreams and I wake up some time in the middle watch - never get off again, and I am stupid all the rest of the day. And damned ill-?tempered, Stephen; I sway away on all top-?ropes for a nothing, and then I am sorry afterwards. Is it my liver, do you think? Not yesterday, but the day before I had a damned unpleasant surprise: I was shaving, and thinking of something else; and Killick had hung the glass aft the scuttle instead of its usual place. So just for a moment I caught sight of my face as though it was a stranger looking in. When I understood it was me, I said, “Where did I get that damned forbidding ship’s corporal’s face?” and determined not to look like that again - it reminded me of that unhappy fellow Pigot, of the Hermione. And this morning there it was again, glaring back at me out of the glass. That is another reason why I am so glad to see you: you will give me one of your treble shotted slime-?draughts to get me to sleep. It’s the devil, you know, not sleeping: no wonder a man looks like a ship’s corporal. And these dreams - do you dream, Stephen?’
‘No, sir.’
‘I thought not. You have a head-?piece. . . however, I had one some nights ago, about your narwhal; and Sophie was mixed up with it in some way. It sounds nonsense, but
it was so full of unhappiness that I woke blubbering like a child. Here it is, by the way.’ He reached behind him and passed the long tapering spiral of ivory.
Stephen’s eyes gleamed as he took it and turned it slowly round and round in his hands. ‘Oh thank you, thank you, Jack,’ he cried. ‘It is perfect - the very apotheosis of a tooth.’
‘There were some longer ones, well over a fathom, but they had lost their tips, and I thought you would like to get the point, ha, ha, ha.’ It was a flash of his old idiot self,
and he wheezed and chuckled for some time, his blue eyes as clear and delighted as they had been long ago: wild glee over an infinitesimal grain of merriment.
‘It is a most prodigious phenomenon,’ said Stephen, cherishing it. ‘How much do I owe you, Jack?’ He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, which he laid on the table, then a handful of gold, then another, and scrabbled for the odd coins, observing that it was foolish to carry it loose: far better made a bundle of.
‘Good God,’ cried Jack, staring. ‘What on earth have you been at? Have you taken a treasure-?ship? I have never seen so much money al! at once in my life.’
‘I have been stripping a jackeen that annoyed me: the young nagin, the coxcomb in the red coat. The lobster, as you would say.’
‘Smithers. But this is gaming, Stephen, not mere play.’
‘Yes. He seemed concerned at his loss: a lardish sweat. But he has all the appearance of wealth - all its petulant arrogance, certainly.’
‘He has private means, I know; but you must have left him very short - this is more than a year’s pay.’
‘So much the better. I intended he should smart.’
‘Stephen, I must ask you not to do it again. He is an under-?bred puppy, I grant you, and I wonder the jollies ever took him, they being so particular; but the ship is in a bad enough way as it is, without getting a name for gaming. Will you not let him have it back?’
‘I will not. But since you wish it, I shall not play with him again. Now how much do I owe you, my dear?’
‘Oh, nothing, nothing. Do me the pleasure of accepting it as a present. Pray do. It was very little, and the prize paid for it.’
‘You took a prize, so?’
‘Yes. Just one. No chance of any more - the Polychrest can be recognized the moment she is hull up on the horizon, now that she is known. I am sorry you were not aboard, though it did not amount to much: I sold my share to Parker for seventy-?five pounds, being short at the time, and he did not make a great deal out of it. She was a little Dutch shalloop, creeping along the back of the Dogger, laden with deals; and we crept just that trifle less almighty slow. A contemptible prize - we should have let her go in the Sophie - but I thought I ought to blood the hands at last. Not that it did much good. The ship is in a bad way; and Harte rides me hard.’
‘Pray show me your honorary sword and the merchants’ piece of plate. I called upon Sophie, and she told me about them.’
‘Sophie?’ cried Jack, as though he had been kicked. ‘Oh. Oh, yes - yes, of course. You called upon her.’ As an attempt at diverting his mind to happier thoughts, this was not a success. After a moment he said, ‘I am sorry, they are not here. I ran short again. For the time being, they are in Dover.’
‘Dover,’ said Stephen, and thought for a while, running the narwhal’s horn through his fingers. ‘Dover. Listen, Jack, you take insane risks, going ashore so often, particularly in Dover.’
‘Why particularly in Dover?’
‘Because your often presence there is notorious. If it is notorious to your friends, how much more so to your enemies? It is known in Whitehall; it must be known to your creditors in Mincing Lane. Do not look angerly now, Jack, but let me tell you three things: I must do so, as a friend. First, you will certainly be arrested for debt if you continue to go ashore. Second, it is said in the service that you cling to this station; and what harm that may do you professionally, you know better than I. No, let me finish. Third, have you considered how you expose Diana Villiers by your very open attentions, in circumstances of such known danger?’
‘Has Diana Villiers put herself under your protection? Has she commissioned you to say this to me?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Then I do not see what right you have to speak to me in this way.’
