body's
watch, except the Bum Actor's, whose timepiece decorated a shop-window
in the Bowery.

*****

That night one of those uncomfortable rumors, started doubtless by
Carhart's talk, shivered through the ship, its vibrations even reaching
the widow lying awake in her cabin. This said that some hundreds of
barrels of turpentine had broken loose and were smashing everything
below. If any one of them rolled into the furnaces an explosion would
follow which would send them all to eternity. That this absurdity was
immediately denied by the purser, who asserted with some vehemence that
there was not a gallon of turpentine aboard, did not wholly allay the
excitement, nor did it stifle the nervous anxiety which had now taken
possession of the passengers.

As the day wore on several additional rumors joined those already
extant. One was dropped in the ear of the Texan by the Bum Actor as the
two stood on the upper deck watching the sea, which was rapidly falling.

"I got so worried I thought I'd go down into the engine room myself,"
he whispered. "I'm just back. Something's wrong down there, or I'm
mistaken. I wish you'd go and find out. I knew that turpentine yarn was
a lie, but I wanted to be sure, so I thought I'd ask one of the stokers
who had come up for a little air. He was about to answer me when the
Chief Engineer came down from the bridge, where he had been talking to
the Captain, and ordered the man below before he had time to fill his
lungs. I waited a little while, hoping he or some of the crew would
come up again, and then I went down the ladder myself. When I got to the
first landing I came bump up against the Chief Engineer. He was standing
in the gangway fooling with a revolver he had in his hand as if he'd
been cleaning it. 'I'll have to ask you to get back where you came
from,' he said. 'This ain't no place for passengers'--and up I came.
What do you think it means? I'd get ugly, too, if he kept me in that
heat and never let me get a whiff of air. I tell you, that's an awful
place down there. Suppose you go and take a look. Your knowing the
Captain might make some difference."

"Were any of the stokers around?" "No--none of them. I didn't see a soul
but the Chief Engineer, and I didn't see him more than a minute."

The big Texan moved closer to the rail and again scrutinized the
sky-line. He had kept this up all the morning, his eye searching
the horizon as he moved from one side of the ship to the othe