nd the train came in as I came out, the locomotive-bell
clanging faintly above the gasp of the air-brakes and the blowing of
steam.

"Good morning," I said. "You are away early."

We climbed into the smoker and took a seat not likely to incommode the
card-players.

"Ah," said he, smiling, "I expect we'll be going out to-night, you see,
and it wouldn't do for the Chief to miss his passage, would it?"

"So soon!" I said, in some surprise.

Mr. Carville gave me one of his quick, good-tempered glances.

"Soon?" he echoed. "Do you know, sir, how long it takes to load the
_Raritan_? Just eight hours. Humph!"

Mr. Carville was fond of using this ejaculation of his in a double
sense, if I may say so. As he spoke his eyes were fixed with some
interest upon four of our neighbours, who had seated themselves near us
and had laid a grey mill-board card-table across their knees. Whether it
was the card-table, or the extraordinary speed with which the _Raritan_
was loaded, that excited his amusement, I am unable to decide. I was too
familiar with the American habit of gambling in trains to take much
notice of it. It is possible that Mr. Carville was less sophisticated.

"That," I said, "does not give you much time on shore."

"No," he said, "it doesn't. Speaking in a general way, we're glad to get
to sea. In port, at this end at any rate, it's one continual rush. Shore
people have very little consideration for sea-going men. They come and
bang at your door any time, day or night. You may be changing your
shift--don't matter, in they come. Some business or other. At sea," he
concluded, "we do have a little peace."

"Where are you bound for?" I asked, opening my paper.

"Oh, Savona or some Riviera port, I expect. They don't give us our
orders till we're off Sandy Hook. You're going to New York, I suppose,
sir, on business?"

"Not exactly. I'm going to Staten Island," I replied, "and I believe
this is the quickest way."

He regarded me with astonishment.

"Is that so? I suppose you'll be taking the ferry to St. George, then?"

I said that such was my intention, and asked why.

"Why, you see, I'm going that way myself, to Communipaw. The _Raritan_
is lying down there."

"Dear me! It never struck me----" I began. He laughed quietly.

"No," he said, "I don't suppose, if you asked a thousand New Yorkers
where such and such a ship was loaded, that more than one could tell
you. They know the _Lusitania_ lies somewhere abo