ieve it was hot down under there. My hands were
all soft with office work, and in the first few hours I got cuts all
over them, and the salt of the boiler-seams got into them and made them
raw. What a time it was! It wasn't long before I was as dirty as the
rest of them. I forgot all about time or food or sleep; just fetched and
carried as I was told. Once the Second, who was screwing the holes we
drilled, asked me if I had been to sea before. I said 'No,' and both of
them said 'Oh Lord!' I can't blame them now. I've said it myself since,
when I've found a new starter on my hands.

"The Chief came down about three o'clock in the morning and looked
through the hole in the boiler casing. He was a little man with a glass
eye. 'Is the Fourth there?' he says, sucking at his pipe. 'Yes,' I said,
and he raps out, 'Yes what?' Humph!

"When the patch was on we had to get the boiler filled and the fires
away as soon as we could. I tried to get some information out of the old
Third, but he just chewed and spat. When I asked the Second he says, 'Oh
Hell, I can't stop to show ye now. Take a hand-lamp and go and see the
run o' the pipes yerself.' I was nearly dropping for sheer sleepiness,
but I made up my mind I would not give in. At breakfast time the Chief
said we'd missed a tide and couldn't get away till midnight, and I
thanked God. But it's a funny thing about a steamer, that the more time
you have the more work there is to do. We had stores to get stowed away,
and as soon as that was done a steam-pipe split on the fore-deck and we
had to go in the rain and patch it. I didn't know where things were; I
didn't know the names of things; I didn't know how they should be done.
I'd been a gentleman for six years, never soiling my hands except to
clean my bicycle. When the Second said to me at tea-time, 'You'd better
knock off and turn in. You'll be on watch to-night,' I began to realize
what I was in for. I sat on the settee in our room and tried to think.
No wonder my old shell-back uncle had laughed. My clothes were lying all
round. I had no bedding, nor sea-gear, and I didn't know where to get
it. Suddenly the door opened and the Chief came in.

"'Haven't you a letter for me?' he says. I gave it to him. 'Captain
Carville's nephew, I see. Coming for a trip, or are you going to stick
to it?' I looked at him.

"'I'm going to stick to it if it kills me,' I said. 'I'm here for
keeps.' He nodded. He liked that.

"'Got any gear?' he