The other ground crewmen did not look very enthusiastic about this description of their prospects; Laurence sighed inwardly, but only nodded them good night and hauled Baggy away. “Sir, I didn’t think there were no—any harm in it; they’re only playing for pence,” Baggy said, tipping his head sideways to ease his ear, and trying to peer at Laurence out of the corner of his eye at once.
Laurence let him go at his empty bedroll, near the other officers. “You have been advanced before the mast, as it were,” he said, “so I will make allowances this time, Mr.—” He stumbled; he realized he did not even know Baggy’s real name. “—sir,” he substituted. “But you are an officer now: you cannot sit to cards with the ground crew at night, with men twice and more your age, and then make them give you precedence in the morning. Nothing could be less respectful.” He paused, glancing over: Junichiro, who shared quarters with the junior officers, was sitting yet awake on his own bedroll; he was looking steadfastly down at his hands, and pretending not to observe the lecture.
“You will show Mr. Junichiro the ropes,” Laurence said abruptly to Baggy, “beginning tomorrow. We will put a little more harness on Temeraire, and you will come aboard, as my servants; I dare say the Chinese cannot object to that. You will take him above and below while we are aloft.”
“How am I to learn from him?” Junichiro said, with at least some sort of a spark, even if it was of dismay, when Laurence had conveyed this programme to him in Chinese. “He does not know any civilized language, and he is—” Junichiro hesitated, for lack of the word, but Laurence did not require it said aloud: Baggy was indeed not very prepossessing, and no-one could have called him gentleman-like.
“As you must learn English, however uncivilized, before I can seek a commission for you,” Laurence said, “that must not be a bar; and Baggy is an officer of the Corps, regardless of his manners. You will sit together on the left shoulder, and inquire of me if you require a translation now and again: you will have to climb over to my position to do so, but it will be as well for you to have that practice.” He left them staring at each other, satisfied himself if they were not. At the very least Junichiro would be diverted some more from his desolation, and Baggy from seeking inappropriate society; and Laurence relied on the power of boredom to make them learn to talk to each other eventually, trapped aloft for ten hours at a time: Baggy was a sociable creature, and might with his very lack of sensibility wear down Junichiro’s resistance.
A separate inner chamber of the pavilion had been set aside for Temeraire’s use; but as he had withdrawn to it with Mei after their dinner, Laurence was far from wishing to interrupt them. He had delayed as long as he might, however, so tentatively he looked inside. To his relief, the two dragons slept already, with their noses only touching; and he found a separate sleeping alcove set aside where his own things had been laid out, the archway leading to it closed off by heavy drapes.
He roused early and found the main chamber empty: going outside he saw Temeraire at some distance from the pavilion, an enormous bulk in the midst of a bare field peering intently at something on the ground; he looked up when Laurence called his name and came towards him. “Pray come and see,” he said, “I admire it very much.” It was one of the carved numbers, and at this close range Laurence could see the white paint lining the sides of each carved channel had in it a great many silvery flecks, polished to a mirror-shine, which evidently caught whatever starlight or moonlight offered and brightened the characters thereby.
Everyone was awake when they returned to the pavilion, and rousing for the day. “Is there more of that pork, anywhere?” Maximus asked, yawning, his eyes half-open.
“Pork!” General Chu said, when Temeraire ventured to ask him, and snorted disapprovingly. He bounded across the chamber to Maximus and, seizing in his jaws one of the tall reeds from the wall, which carried a banner, thwacked him soundly on the hindquarters.
“Oi!” Maximus said, rousing up, “what does he mean by that? Temeraire, tell that fellow to stop, or I will pin him down.”
“Hah! Will he!” General Chu said. “Well, if he is awake, then, tell him to get aloft and stop looking for more food: we will eat to-night, not weight our bellies down for a long day of flying, and if he is sleepy and hungry in the air, perhaps that will remind him to eat more porridge to-night, instead of only gulping meat as though he were a dog. We are on campaign!”