West Wind Drift | Page 6

were getting

the room ready for someone else, so when they departed,--very quietly,
sir,--I sneaked out and decided to try for accommodations in the first
cabin. I--"
Mr. Mott: "Did you say stewards?"
Mr. Percival: "That's what I took them to be."
Captain Trigger: "You are either lying, young man, or plumb crazy."
Mr. Percival, with dignity: "The latter is quite possible, Captain,--but
not the former. I managed quite easily to get from the second cabin to
the first. You'd be surprised to know how simple it was. Running
without lights as you do, sir, simplified things tremendously. I found a
very sick and dejected Jewish gentleman trying to die in the least
exposed corner of the promenade deck. At least, he said he didn't want
to live. I offered to put him to bed and to sit up with him all night if it
would make him feel a little less like passing away. He lurched at the
chance. I accompanied him to his stateroom, and so got a few
much-needed hours of repose, despite his groans. I also ate his
breakfast for him. Skirmishing around this morning, I found there were
no unoccupied rooms in the first cabin, so I decided that we were far
enough from land for me to reveal myself to the officer of the day,--if
that's what you call 'em on board ship,--with a very honest and laudable
desire to work my passage home. I can only add, Captain, that I am
ready and willing to do anything from swabbing floors on the upper
deck to passing coal at the bottom of the ship."
Captain Trigger stared hard at the young man, a puzzled expression in
his eyes.
"You appear to be a gentleman," he said at last. "Why are you on board
this ship as a stowaway? Don't you know that I can put you in irons,
confine you to the brig, and put you ashore at the first port of call?"
"Certainly, sir. That's just what I am trying to avoid. As a gentleman, I
am prepared to do everything in my power to relieve you of what must
seem a most painful official duty."

Mr. Mott smiled. The Captain stiffened perceptibly.
"How did you come aboard this ship?" he demanded.
"As a coal passer, sir. Day before yesterday, when you were getting in
the last lot of coal. I had a single five dollar gold piece in my pocket. It
did the trick. With that seemingly insignificant remnant of a
comfortable little fortune, I induced one of the native coal carriers,--a
Portuguese nobleman, I shall always call him,--to part with his trousers,
shirt and hat. I slipped 'em on over my own clothes, stuffed my boots
and socks inside my shirt, picked up his basket of coal, and walked
aboard. It isn't necessary, I suppose, to state that my career as a
dock-hand ceased with that solitary basket of coal, or that having once
put foot aboard the Doraine, I was in a position to book myself as a
passenger."
"Well, I'm damned!" said Captain Trigger. "Some one shall pay for this
carelessness, Mr. Mott. I've never heard of anything so cool. What did
you say your name is, young man?"
"A. A. Percival, sir."
"Ah--ahem! I see. Will it offend you, A. A., if I make so bold as to
inquire why the devil you neglected to book your passage in the regular
way, as any gentleman from Baltimore might have been expected to do,
and where is your passport, your certificate of health, your purse and
your discharge from prison?"
Mr. Percival spread out his hands in a gesture of complete surrender.
"Would you be interested in my story, Captain Trigger? It is brief, but
edifying. When I arrived in town, the evening before you were to sail, I
had a wallet well-filled with gold, currency, and so forth. I had
travelled nearly two thousand miles,--from the foothills of the Andes,
to be more definite,--and I had my papers, my cancelled contract, and a
clear right-of-way, so to speak. My personal belongings were supposed
to have arrived in town on the train with me. A couple of cow-hide
trunks, in fact. Well, they didn't arrive. I don't know what became of

them. I had no time to investigate. This was the last boat I could get for
two or three weeks that would land me in the U. S. A. I put up at the
Alcazar Grand for the night. It was then too late to secure passage, but I
fully intended to do so the first thing in the morning. There was a
concert and dance at the hotel that night, and I went in to look on for
awhile. I ran across a friend, an engineer who was on the