lous. A thing
of iron, he has endured; and he has no patience nor sympathy with these
creatures who lack his own excessive iron.

I noticed the stone-deaf man, the twisted oaf whose face I have described
as being that of an ill-treated and feeble-minded faun. His bright,
liquid, pain-filled eyes were more filled with pain than ever, his face
still more lean and drawn with suffering. And yet his face showed an
excess of nervousness, sensitiveness, and a pathetic eagerness to please
and do. I could not help observing that, despite his dreadful
sense-handicap and his wrecked, frail body, he did the most work, was
always the last of the group to spring to the life-line and always the
first to loose the life-line and slosh knee-deep or waist-deep through
the churning water to attack the immense and depressing tangle of rope
and tackle.

I remarked to Mr. Pike that the men seemed thinner and weaker than when
they came on board, and he delayed replying for a moment while he stared
down at them with that cattle-buyer's eye of his.

"Sure they are," he said disgustedly. "A weak breed, that's what they
are--nothing to build on, no stamina. The least thing drags them down.
Why, in my day we grew fat on work like that--only we didn't; we worked
so hard there wasn't any chance for fat. We kept in fighting trim, that
was all. But as for this scum and slum--say, you remember, Mr. Pathurst,
that man I spoke to the first day, who said his name was Charles Davis?"

"The one you thought there was something the matter with?"

"Yes, and there was, too. He's in that 'midship room with the Greek now.
He'll never do a tap of work the whole Voyage. He's a hospital case, if
there ever was one. Talk about shot to pieces! He's got holes in him I
could shove my fist through. I don't know whether they're perforating
ulcers, or cancers, or cannon-shot wounds, or what not. And he had the
nerve to tell me they showed up after he came on board!"

"And he had them all the time?" I asked.

"All the time! Take my word, Mr. Pathurst, they're years old. But he's
a wonder. I watched him those first days, sent him aloft, had him down
in the fore-hold trimming a few tons of coal, did everything to him, and
he never showed a wince. Being up to the neck in the salt water finally
fetched him, and now he's reported off duty--for the voyage. And he'll
draw his wages for the whole time, have all night in, and never do a tap.
Oh, he's a hot o