ons. Thus,
on the starboard side of it were the state-rooms of the captain and Miss
West, for'ard of it were the dining-room and main cabin; while on the
port side of it was the row of rooms I have described, two of which were
mine.

I ventured down the hall toward the stern, and found it opened into the
stern of the _Elsinore_, forming a single large apartment at least thirty-
five feet from side to side and fifteen to eighteen feet in depth,
curved, of course, to the lines of the ship's stern. This seemed a store-
room. I noted wash-tubs, bolts of canvas, many lockers, hams and bacon
hanging, a step-ladder that led up through a small hatch to the poop,
and, in the floor, another hatch.

I spoke to the steward, an old Chinese, smooth-faced and brisk of
movement, whose name I never learned, but whose age on the articles was
fifty-six.

"What is down there?" I asked, pointing to the hatch in the floor.

"Him lazarette," he answered.

"And who eats there?" I indicated a table with two stationary sea-chairs.

"Him second table. Second mate and carpenter him eat that table."

When I had finished giving instructions to Wada for the arranging of my
things I looked at my watch. It was early yet, only several minutes
after three so I went on deck again to witness the arrival of the crew.

The actual coming on board from the tug I had missed, but for'ard of the
amidship house I encountered a few laggards who had not yet gone into the
forecastle. These were the worse for liquor, and a more wretched,
miserable, disgusting group of men I had never seen in any slum. Their
clothes were rags. Their faces were bloated, bloody, and dirty. I won't
say they were villainous. They were merely filthy and vile. They were
vile of appearance, of speech, and action.

"Come! Come! Get your dunnage into the fo'c's'le!"

Mr. Pike uttered these words sharply from the bridge above. A light and
graceful bridge of steel rods and planking ran the full length of the
_Elsinore_, starting from the poop, crossing the amidship house and the
forecastle, and connecting with the forecastle-head at the very bow of
the ship.

At the mate's command the men reeled about and glowered up at him, one or
two starting clumsily to obey. The others ceased their drunken
yammerings and regarded the mate sullenly. One of them, with a face
mashed by some mad god in the making, and who was afterwards to be known
by me as Larry, burst into a guffaw,