Let's see how Balto is adjusting to life on the ship. And maybe we can find out a little more about this James guy. Like Balto said, something doesn;t smell right about him.
The good news was, moving the weapons proved to be little trouble. The bad news was, everything else was a lot of trouble. I used to think work at the inn was tough, but it was nothing compared to being a cabin boy. When I was below decks, I worked in the kitchen scouring pots and pans or serving food to rowdy sailors. Up on deck, Orde had me scrub the deck until it was "clean enough to eat off of," or work with the sailors when the sails had to be adjusted. This was not what I had in mind when I dreamed of adventure on the high seas.
But, it wasn't all bad. Orde was firm, but not unfair. While some of the other sailors seemed derisive of me for my age and breeding, he didn't look down on me for either. I noticed he didn't work me (or James, I see now) as hard as the others on board, although I was kept busy enough to feel soreness in my muscles at the end of each day, and an increasing hardness in them at the beginning. Being a sailor was turning me into a dog stronger than most my age. In the kitchen, Silver was as hard a boss as Orde. But he kept a huge barrel, so big I could have happily used it for a kennel, full of apples, and he let everyone eat from it as often as they wanted.
Then one day, while I was scrubbing the deck, something happened that would change the whole voyage, and my whole life. I was on my hands and knees with a coarse brush, trying to make the deck "clean enough to eat off of," when I became aware of the captain's boots right in front of me.
"Balto," he greeted.
I stood up and pushed my hands against my back. "Yes, Captain?"
He eyed the deck I'd been scrubbing. "You've done enough here. Why don't you go relieve James of his watch? He's been on double-shifts since Nikki got scurvy."
I nodded. "Yes, sir." I ran to put the mop and bucket away, then hurried to the rigging. I had always wanted to climb up into the crow's nest. Lookout seemed like the best job on the ship. Well, maybe next to being captain. I could see James watching the sea through a telescope, his expansive shirt billowing in the wind like an extra sail on the mast. He was looking out to sea in my direction, but it seemed I was literally beneath his notice.
Grinning to myself, I decided to have a little fun with this mystery sailor. I jumped from the rigging to the crossbar of the mast and crawled along it until I reached some rigging on the other side. I grabbed onto that and resumed climbing, coming up to the nest behind James. He was still staring off into the distance, oblivious to my arrival. Reaching out a paw, I grabbed his bandanna and yanked it free from his head. "Avast!" I yelled in my best pirate voice. "We're taking the ship!"
My pirate voice was pretty bad, I have to admit, but James gasped and spun around as if Flint himself were attacking. I probably looked just as shocked when I saw what was under that cloth.
What is it? What's under the cloth?! Well, I'm not telling yet. Nyah.