le to Grace,
who knew as much as she did before. Meantime the crowd grew bigger, the
noise louder and the excitement more intense. A number of ship's
officers had the man on his feet and were half dragging him, half
carrying him to the gangplank. It was not exactly an agreeable spectacle
with which to regale fastidious passengers on sailing-day, and the
ship's officers would have gladly avoided it. But the refractory stoker
was necessary to the speed of the vessel, and there was no way of
getting him aboard except by the main gangway. It was late. The steamer
would pull out any moment, and the other gangways had been already
pulled in.

Mrs. Stuart offered to interpret the sailor's speech:

"He says that one of the sailors has been overcome by the heat and
fallen on the dock in a faint."

"Not exactly, miss," grinned the man, with another tug of his cap.
"'Ee's not the kind wot faints. 'Ee's puttin' up a fight. 'Ee's a
fighter, is Handsome Jack."

Grace turned in bewilderment to her father, who had just returned on
board.

"Handsome Jack!" she echoed. "What does he mean?"

"It's only a deserter," explained Mr. Harmon. "A fireman who attempted
to get away before the ship sailed. The officers found him in a
drinking-shop and brought him here."

"I don't blame the poor beggar for trying to desert," said the Honorable
Percy Fitzhugh, who had just come up from below-stairs. "It's jolly
awful in that stoke-hold, don'tcher know? Ever been down in the
stoke-hold, Miss Harmon? No? I'll take you down some day--eh, what? I
don't see how they get men to do such work. I'd rather commit suicide,
by Jove!"

"Yes, it is terrible work," said Mr. Harmon. "They take to it only when
desperate and forced by circumstances. It is well known that murderers
and criminals of every description take to stoking when they wish to lie
low. They know the police will never look for them in the stoke-hold, on
the theory that they are getting punishment enough."

"How dreadful!" yawned Grace, as she watched with languid interest the
commotion on the shore. Presently she asked: "Can they make him go back
to work in the stoke-hold whether he likes or not?"

"Certainly," replied her father. "This is an English ship. He probably
signed articles in Liverpool. Under British maritime law, any member of
the crew deserting ship in a foreign port can be arrested. That's what,
in sailor parlance, is called 'a pier-head jump.' You see, a big vessel
lik