TREASURE ISLAND
He drew some cognac from the cask into a tin canikin.
"Will you taste, messmate?" he asked; and when I had refused: "Well, I'll take a drain myself, Jim," said he. "I need a caulker, for there 's trouble on hand. And, talking o' trouble, why did that doctor give me the chart, Jim?"
My face expressed a wonder so unaffected that he saw the needlessness of further questions.
"Ah, well, he did, though," said he. "And there's something under that, no doubt—something, surely, under that, Jim—bad or good."
And he took another swallow of the brandy, shaking his great fair head like a man who looks forward to the worst.
[224]
