The Munity of the Elsinore

acious living-room, the captain's quarters, and, undoubtedly, Miss West's quarters. I could hear her humming some air as she bustled about with her unpacking. The stew

iss West, for'ard of it were the dining room and main cabin; while on the p

t 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-t

ced and brisk of movement, whose name I never lea

I asked, pointing to t

rette," h

two stationary sea chairs. "Him second table.

y things I looked at my watch. It was early yet, only several minutes

d a few laggards who had not yet gone into the forecastle. These were the worse for liquor, and a mo

bloody, and dirty. I won't

vile. They were vile of appe

your dunnage in

rods and planking ran the full length of the Elsinore, starting from the poop, crossing the amids

g 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 Larr

s the old sti

ily, and I noted the way his huge hands strained in their cl

ll have nothing out of you

o this was all his high and mighty talk of kill and drive, I thought. Not until afterwards did I recollect, as I

man was overboard. The second mate sprang down the poop-ladder and darted past me along the deck. The mate, still on the slender, white-painted bridge, that seemed no more than a spider thread, surprised me by the activity with which he dashed

ere potent. They were iron. They were perceivers, willers, and doers. They were as of another species compared with the sailors under them. While the latter, witnesses of the happening and directly on the spot, had been crying out in befuddled helplessness, and

d creatures of sailors by virtue of this remarkable difference of efficiency and will. Truly, they were more widely di

o seemed deliberately swimming away from the ship. He was a dark-skinned Mediterranean of some sort, a

al strokes his arms tangled in it ere he could swim clear. This accomplished, he proceeded to scream some