He took himself off the bridge and went whistling to his chambers with
a strong yearning for some man-talk and tobacco after his first experience of
an entire day spent in the society of a woman. There was a stronger desire at
his heart when there rose before him an unsolicited vision of the Barralong
dipping deep and sailing free for the Southern Cross.
CHAPTER VIII
And these two, as I have told you,
Were the friends of Hiawatha,
Chibiabos, the musician,
And the very strong man, Kwasind.
--Hiawatha
Torpenhow was paging the last sheets of some manuscript, while the Nilghai, who
had come for chess and remained to talk tactics, was reading through the first
part, commenting scornfully the while.
"It's picturesque enough and it's sketchy," said he; "but as a serious
consideration of affairs in Eastern Europe, it's not worth much."
"It's off my hands at any rate. . . . Thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine
slips altogether, aren't there? That should make between eleven and twelve
pages of valuable misinformation. Heigh-ho!" Torpenhow shuffled the writing
together and hummed--
'Young lambs to sell, young lambs to sell,
If I'd as much money as I could tell,
I never would cry, Young lambs to sell!'"
Dick entered, self-conscious and a little defiant, but in the best of tempers
with all the world.
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