g
materials on the desk, before which a swing arm-chair,
leather-upholstered and screwed solidly to the floor, invited me. My
pyjamas and dressing-gown were out. My slippers, in their accustomed
place by the bed, also invited me.

Here, aft, all was fitness, intelligence. On deck it was what I have
described--a nightmare spawn of creatures, assumably human, but
malformed, mentally and physically, into caricatures of men. Yes, it was
an unusual crew; and that Mr. Pike and Mr. Mellaire could whip it into
the efficient shape necessary to work this vast and intricate and
beautiful fabric of a ship was beyond all seeming of possibility.

Depressed as I was by what I had just witnessed on deck, there came to
me, as I leaned back in my chair and opened the second volume of George
Moore's _Hail and Farewell_, a premonition that the voyage was to be
disastrous. But then, as I looked about the room, measured its generous
space, realized that I was more comfortably situated than I had ever been
on any passenger steamer, I dismissed foreboding thoughts and caught a
pleasant vision of myself, through weeks and months, catching up with all
the necessary reading which I had so long neglected.

Once, I asked Wada if he had seen the crew. No, he hadn't, but the
steward had said that in all his years at sea this was the worst crew he
had ever seen.

"He say, all crazy, no sailors, rotten," Wada said. "He say all big
fools and bime by much trouble. 'You see,' he say all the time. 'You
see, You see.' He pretty old man--fifty-five years, he say. Very smart
man for Chinaman. Just now, first time for long time, he go to sea.
Before, he have big business in San Francisco. Then he get much
trouble--police. They say he opium smuggle. Oh, big, big trouble. But
he catch good lawyer. He no go to jail. But long time lawyer work, and
when trouble all finish lawyer got all his business, all his money,
everything. Then he go to sea, like before. He make good money. He get
sixty-five dollars a month on this ship. But he don't like. Crew all
crazy. When this time finish he leave ship, go back start business in
San Francisco."

Later, when I had Wada open one of the ports for ventilation, I could
hear the gurgle and swish of water alongside, and I knew the anchor was
up and that we were in the grip of the _Britannia_, towing down the
Chesapeake to sea. The idea suggested itself that it was not too late. I
could very easily