nctions to descend to the
infernal regions and remain there, and Murphy pulled ashore and took
the boat to New York, bent upon vengeance.

At the door of his boarding-house in Front Street he met Hennesey, his
runner. Hennesey was a small man, sly, shrewd, and persuasive, and so
far had given satisfaction in the difficult business of soliciting
incoming crews to board at Murphy's house instead of the Sailors' Home,
the Provident Seamen's Mission, and other like institutions. But
Murphy's mood was strong upon him, and he asked, peremptorily:

"Well, what did ye git?"

"Nothin'; the Mission launch wuz on hand and the bunch wint in a body."

"Dom yer soul, what do I pay ye fur, anyhow?" stormed Murphy. "Are ye
no good? Tell me thot. Are ye no good at all? What are ye takin' my
money fur?"

"To git sailors to come to yer house on commission," retorted Hennesey,
hotly; "an' fur fear I'd be makin' too much, ye sind me to a bloody
coaster, whose min are in the union, while you go down to the
_Albatross_, in from deep water."

"I got no wan from the _Albatross_."

"No fault o' yours or mine. I'd ha' got 'em."

"None o' yer shlack."

"To hill wi' ye."

"Ye're discharged. Come in an' I'll pay ye off."

"Right ye are. From this on I'll work fur mesilf and git your business,
ye skin."

Hennesey's estimate of Murphy was not far wrong, though it might also
apply to himself. The profits of a sailors' boarding-house depend not
upon the cash paid in by men with money, who choose their own ship and
come and go as they please, but upon the advance or allotment of pay
which the law allows to deep-water seamen in order that they may
purchase an outfit of clothing before sailing. To get this allotment,
Murphy and others of his kind would take in and feed any penniless
sailor long enough to run up an inflated bill for board, money lent,
and clothing, then find him a ship and walk him to the shipping-office,
more or less drugged or drunk. Here the penniless sailor dared not,
even if suspicious, contest the claim, for, should he do so, he would
find himself not only out of a ship, but out of a boarding-house; so he
would sign away his allotment, and go aboard with what clothing his
benefactor had allowed him. As deep-water men on shore are invariably
drunk, drugged, or penniless, the boarding-masters, to whom the
skippers must apply for men, easily control the situation. And, as
machinery for such control, nearly all boarding-ho