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"I come down here once in a while and let in the sun, and sometimes I want to hunt up something or 'nother; kind of stow-away place, ye see."
The voyage back was by the Empress line of steamers flying between Vancouver and Yokohama. Upon reaching Nagasaki again I appealed to the quarter-master to secure transportation; he said I could not get anything at all. Officers whom I had met in the Philippines proposed to take me and my baggage on board without the necessary red tape, in fact to make me a stow-away, but I refused.
When they appeared on the bank above him, he continued, "Look 'ere w'at I fin' on my batteau," and held up the wriggling form of Johnny Gale. "He's stow hisse'f away onder dem blanket. Sacré! He's bad feller, dis man don' pay for hees ticket at all; he's reg'lar toff mug." "I want to go 'long!" yelled the incorrigible stow-away.
When he emerged he was beset with questions. "Can't give any account of himself yet," said the surgeon. "Weak and not rightly conscious." "What ails him?" "Enough. Gash in his scalp. Fever. Thirst and exhaustion. Nervous shock, too, I think." "How came he aboard the Laughing Lass?" "Does he know anything of Billy?" "Was he a stow-away?" "Did you ask him about Ives and McGuire?"
He jerked the poor fellow out of the hold, and pushed him along to the mate's feet. I say "poor fellow," and you'd never wonder why if you'd seen as much of stowing away as I have. I'd as lief see a son of mine in a Carolina slave-gang as to see him lead the life of a stow-away.
I was up in the maintop, I forget what for, when all at once there came a cry and a shout; and, when I touched deck, I saw a crowd around the fore-hatch. "What's all this noise for?" says Mr. Whitmarsh, coming up and scowling. "A stow-away, sir! A boy stowed away!" said Bob, catching the officer's tone quick enough. Bob always tested the wind well, when a storm was brewing.
Whitmarsh," three times, "you've got the power and you know it, and so do the gentlemen who put you here; and I'm only a stow-away boy, and things are all in a tangle, but you'll be sorry yet for every time you've laid your hands on me!" He hadn't a pleasant look about the eyes either, when he said it. Fact was, that first month on the Madonna had done the lad no good.
They know you've no money; and if you get out of the country at all, they expect it will be as a stoker or a stow-away They'll never think you're driving in cabs and staying at the best hotels." "But I shan't be," he said, simply. "Oh yes, you will. You'll need money, of course; and I've brought it. You'll need a good deal; so I've brought plenty."
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