“Up where I've been running things and cock-walking like a foreman in a shirt-waist factory, I made the rules and I enforced them. I want to say to you that no favours were shown. If the Prince of Wales had drifted in there, dead broke, and asked for something to eat, he would have got it, but you bet your life he'd have had to work for it. A tramp's a tramp, no matter how much purple he's been used to, and you can say the same for a stowaway. What's the matter with me taking the place of one of those deck-hands, or whatever you call 'em, you lost last night?”
“Swabbers, maybe you call 'em. Men that mop up the decks after everybody else has turned in.”
“What are you talking about?” demanded the Captain, sitting up very straight. Percival stared at him in astonishment.
“I thought you knew about it, of course. Good Lord, sir, don't you know that a couple of your men jumped overboard last night,--or early this morning, rather? Just as the ship was rounding that big headland--”
“Good God, man, are you in earnest?” cried Mr. Mott, starting toward the door.
“I certainly am. I took them for deserters, of course,--not suicides, because they didn't forget to put on life preservers before they jumped. I haven't a doubt they were picked up, so there's no use worrying. A minute or two after they went over,--from the bottom deck or whatever you call it,--I heard a motor boat popping away like a gatling-gun not far,--”
But he was alone. Captain Trigger had dashed out of the cabin in the wake of the First Officer.
Algernon Adonis Percival stared blankly at the open door.
“Good Lord, why all this excitement over a couple of bums?” he said, addressing space. “If they were working for me, I'd thank the Lord to be rid of 'em so cheaply. They--Hello!”
“Come along with me,” he snapped. “Lively, now. Just where and when did you see a couple of men go overboard? Quietly, now. We don't want to alarm the passengers.”
Within five minutes after Percival's disturbing report, the officers of the Doraine, with set faces, were employed in a swift but silent investigation. Before many more minutes had passed, at least a portion of the stowaway's story had been verified. Two men were found to be missing, although, strange to say, they had not been missed up to the time that noses were counted. They were down on the ship's roster as Norwegians, New York registry, and had come down with the Doraine on her trip from the north.