Suddenly the door of the _Bertha B's_ cabin opened. A great shaft of yellow light shot athwart the darkness. Two figures emerged from the cabin.
"Hello, Jim," called one of them. There was no answer. After a moment's pause the speaker called again. This time he raised his voice to a great bellow and repeated his cry: "Hello, Jim!" The second call, magnified by the fog, went roaring through the fleet. Still there was no answer. "He ain't here, Cap," said the man who had called, to the figure by his side. "Maybe he went ashore to get some tobacco."
"Tobacco nothing!" exclaimed the other angrily. "The skunk got his breakfast and then snuk ashore. I ain't surprised. He looked like that kind o' cattle. Though he did work pretty darned good the three weeks we had him!"
The speaker, Captain Christopher Bagley, paused an instant. Then, "Scabby trick!" he exclaimed. "Leaves us deucedly short handed, and he knowed it. Better go ashore, George, and see if you can find him. If you can't, get anybody you can pick up. We got to have another hand."
The sailor, George Bishop, turned without a word and made his way ashore, ducking under ropes and rigging, stumbling over chains and dredges, and stepping carefully from boat to boat, until at last he reached the ship at the end of the pier. The tide was near ebb, and the sailor had to climb into the ship's rigging in order to get on the pier.
The huge shed skirting the shore was dimly lighted by electric lights; and the illumination from these faintly lighted the pier, along which the sailor was now making his way. A great pile of burlap sacks was heaped up near the centre of the pier, and behind these, like a windbreak, stood a long row of barrels, piled one above another, and at least three tiers deep. But the sailor took no note of these things. His glance roved hither and thither through the great shed and on the various piers, looking for a familiar form. Half-way across the pier, he met a fellow sailor.
"Hello, Tom!" he called. "Seen anything of Jim Hawley?"
"That's what he did. He come aboard and et his breakfast and then snuk off. And we was short handed at that."
"I ain't surprised. He was drunk last night."
"Well, he won't do it again. Captain Bagley won't stand for that kind of cattle. Don't know where we could get another hand, do you? We're awful short of men."