"Well yes, indeed! What more do you want? We can only go on two legs, we men; we can't fly." "Captain Bradleigh seems of a different opinion with this yacht. He makes us swim and pretty well fly." "Yes, but what was Jack a month ago? Going about the house like a boy in a nightmare, or else with his hands supporting his heavy head, while he was A plus B-ing, squaring nothing, and extracting roots, or building up calculations with logs. He isn't like the boy he was when he came on board." "That's true," said the captain quietly. "His interest is being awakened, and something else too--his appetite." "Yes; he certainly eats twice as much, and is not so particular as to what it is." "There!" cried the doctor triumphantly. "And what does that mean?" "That the sea-air makes him hungry." "Bah! that isn't all. It means that Nature keeps on asking for more bricks and mortar to go on building up the works that were begun years ago and not finished--muscle and bone and nerve, sir, so as to get him a sound body; and mind you, a sound body generally means a sound brain. Everything in a proper state of balance." "I suppose you are right," said Sir John. "Right? of course I am. Only give him time." "Where is he now?" "Along with Bartlett," said the captain. "Yes, I can see him. They're examining something over the bows. Found something fresh. Isn't that a healthy sign? He was only a bit tired and bored just now. Look here, Meadows, you and I must not be too anxious, and keep on letting him see that we are watching him. Why, look at the other morning when he was just up from his sea-sickness. Do you think if I had begged him to eat that rasher of ham he would have touched it? Not he. Let him alone, and he'll soon be coming to us." "Certainly that will be the best course. I should like to see though what he is doing now?" "Better leave him alone. Sensitive chap like that, with a body like a little boy and a head like an old man, don't want to feel that he is being led about by a nurse. But there, I must humour you, I suppose. Come away." The doctor set the example by rising, and they walked slowly forward, hearing Jack talking in an animated way as they drew nearer, and, as if in obedience to an order, one of the sailors trotted by them. As they reached the port bows Jack turned round where he was leaning over the starboard side, as if to look for the man who had gone on some errand, and he caught sight of his father. "Come and look here, father," he cried. "Something so curious." "Eh? What is it?" said Sir John coolly, and, followed by the doctor, he crossed to where his son stood with the mate. "Look over here, straight down into the black water," said Jack. "Hah! Yes, very beautiful, looks as if we were sailing through a sea of liquid pale gold."