st of his light sails before the
passage was half over. For a sudden increase of wind at night would
occasionally prove too much for Murphy or Hennesey, with the mate on
watch. As for going aloft, day or night, their case was too hopeless,
even for the optimistic Murphy, even had they been willing to leave the
deck--which, most decidedly, they were not.

Even so, this passage might have reached a successful termination, the
homeward-bound Irishmen safely landed at Queenstown, and the others
graduated in a much-needed schooling in the doctrine of the brotherhood
of man; but Captain Williams, against Murphy's urgent and earnest plea
for more meat on the forecastle menu, persisted in sticking to the
original diet. The _Albatross_ was a "full-and-plenty" ship--that
is, one in which, with the supposed consent of the crew, the government
scale was discarded in favor of one containing more vegetables and less
meat. But these men knew nothing of this, or the reasons for it; and
while believing that there was no whisky in the ship, they had accepted
this deprivation, they were firmly assured that there was plenty of
meat; so day by day their discontent grew, until by the time the ship
had reached soundings they were ripe for open revolt. And it was the
small, weakling steward that brought it about.

The passage had been good for all except this steward. It had brought
to Captain Williams and his two mates, now recovered in mind and body
from the first friction, the unspoken but fixed conception that there
were men in the world not afraid of them. It had reduced Murphy's fat,
and his resentment against Hennesey and Captain Williams. It had
increased Hennesey's respect for Murphy and lessened his respect for
himself; for without Murphy's moral support he could not have done his
part. It had eliminated the alcohol from the veins and the brains of
the twenty-four wild men, and lessened the propensity to kill at the
same time that it lessened their fear of a brick. It had lessened the
sublime, ages-old contempt for white men that the Chinese cook shared
with his countrymen, and which simply _had_ to yield to the fear of
death inspired by three or four frenzied Irish faces at the galley
door, their owners demanding "mate." But the small steward, busy with
his cabin dishes, his cabin carpets, only visiting the galley to obtain
the cabin meals, had seen nothing, felt nothing, and learned nothing.
And, with the indifference of ignorance