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Nothing of real importance can, of course, be learned from a casual steamer trip, but Hagan seemed to think otherwise, for he was always either watching through his glasses or asking apparently artless questions of passengers or passing deckhands.
By what arrangement or influence she made the deckhands considerately blind to this repetition of the journey without money and without price, I neither knew nor cared, being altogether engaged with playing about the deck and admiring the wonders of the vasty deep. The other boats were wonderful, especially the big sailing-ships, which were far more numerous then than they are now.
That means, as third cook; my task the washing and scouring of greasy pots, pans, and dishes ... and waiting on the firemen and deckhands at meals. The James Eads Howe took on a cargo of rust-coloured iron ore at Twin Harbours ... the gigantic machinery grided and crashed all night, pouring the ore into the hold, to the dazzling flare of electric lights....
He signaled to the engine room to reverse and blew short, sharp shrieks of warning. Already deckhands and officers, scantily clad, were appearing from fore and aft. "Men overboard two of 'em!" explained Elliot in a shout from the boat which he was trying to lower. The first mate and another man ran to help him. The three of them lowered and manned the boat.
Just as the gangplank was about to be pulled in the deckhands waited to permit a very feeble and bent old man to hobble aboard. He had long, white hair, and his face was mostly gray whiskers, except a pair of dark spectacles. A porter followed him bearing two brand new suitcases. The adventurous four were soon comfortably perched in steamer chairs watching New York harbor slip by them.
"The crew has cleared out to a man! Mr. Portman and I are left, the engineer's left and his assistant, they belonged to the yacht and don't have much to do with the crew, but the rest's all gone! Deckhands, stewards, and even the cook. The stewardess must have gone too, for I haven't seen her." "What's the meaning of all this," shouted Burke, his face getting very red.
The quarterdeck, a place of Epicurean ease for idle passengers, was deserted but for a couple of deckhands engaged in furling the awning.
The deckhands and Grundy, the mate, were almost at the door, and I had just time enough to slam it shut and lock it in their faces. I meant to enjoy seeing the cook taken down without any interruption. Sam let out a final yell, and Bullard broke free, making a mess of it without weight. He was sputtering out bits of the biscuit.
We had no idea, he insisted, of the game in the woods. "Cast off the fasts!" I shouted to the deckhands, from my place on the saloon deck. Cornwood looked in the direction of the woods, and seemed to be greatly troubled. He evidently thought his agent was still in the woods, and I was not disposed to undeceive him.
To that slowly moving mass, for she was now drifting ahead under quarter-speed, this obliteration of light imparted a sense of stealthiness. This note of suspense, of watchfulness, of illicit adventure was reflected in the very tones of the motley deckhands who brushed past him in the humid velvety blackness.
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