He looked reflectively at Helga, then at me, pulling down first one whisker, then the other, while his thick lips lay broad in a smile under his long hooked nose.
'Oh, well' said he, 'Abraham Wise will do.' He went to the cuddy door and called 'Forward there!'
'Yaas, sah,' came a thick Africander-like note out of the forecastle obscurity.
He resumed his seat, and in a few minutes Abraham arrived. Helga instantly rose and gave him her hand with a sweet cordial smile that was full of her gratification at the sight of him. For my part, it did my heart good to see him. After the tallowy countenance and odd talk of the Captain and the primrose complexions and scowling glances of his Malays, there was real refreshment to the spirits to be got out of the homely English face and English 'longshore garb of the boatman, with the man's suggestions, besides, of the English Channel and of home.
'Oh, he's a-feeling a little better, sir. A good bit down, of course, as we both are. 'Taint realizable even _now_.'
'Do you refer to the loss of your lugger?' said Captain Bunting.
'Ay, sir, to the _Airly Marn_,' answered Abraham, confronting him, and gazing at him with a steadfastness that slightly increased his squint.
'But surely, my good fellow,' cried the Captain, 'you had plenty of time, I hope, to feel thoroughly grateful for your preservation from the dreadful fate which lay before you had Providence suffered you to continue your voyage?'
'Oi dunno about dreadful fate,' answered Abraham: 'all I can say is, I should be blooming glad if that there _Airly Marn_ was afloat again, or if so be as we'd never fallen in with this here _Light of the World_.'
'It is as I told you, you perceive,' exclaimed the Captain, smiling and addressing Helga and me in his blandest manner: 'as we descend the social scale, recognition of signal and providential mercies grows feebler and feebler, until it dies out--possibly before it gets down to Deal boatmen. I want a word with you, Abraham Wise. But first, how have you been treated forward?'
'Oh, werry well indeed, sir,' he answered. 'The mate showed us where to tarn in when the time comes round, and I dessay we'll manage to git along all right till we gets clear of ye.'