.. just in time ... the men came pouring down
helter-skelter ... the talking, arguing, voluble swearing, and obscenity
was renewed ... all we could see, from where we lay, was a confusion of
legs to the knee, moving about....
They settled down on the benches about the table. They slackened their
talk and began smacking their lips over ship-biscuit, marmalade, and
tea.
* * * * *
Still we lay in silence. The screw of the propeller had not started
yet. We dared not come out or we would be put ashore.
* * * * *
We were hungry. We could hear their tin plates clattering and clinking
as the cattlemen ate supper, and smell the smell of cornbeef and boiled
potatoes. Our mouths ran from hunger.
--"wish I had something to scoff, I'm starvin'," groaned Nippers, "but
we'll hafta lay low till the bloody tub pulls out or we'll get caught
an' dumped ashore."
Supper done with, the men were sitting about and smoking. They were
soon, however, summoned up on deck, by a voice that roared down to them,
from above, filling their quarters with a gust of sound.
We were alone now, perhaps,--it was so still.
With an almost imperceptible slowness, Nippers thrust his head out, as
cautiously as a turtle ... he emerged further.
He made a quick thrust of the arm for a platter of beef and potatoes,
that stood, untouched, on the table .
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