ches in
his stockings,--broad across the shoulders in proportion, and big boned,
but lean almost to the point of emaciation. His skin was dry, of an
unwholesome yellow tint, and shrivelled, as though he had once been
stout and burly of form but had now become thin, while his skin had
failed to shrink in the same proportion as his flesh. His eyes were, as
I have said, black, small, and deeply sunken in his head; his hair was a
dull, dead black, and was worn cropped close to his head; his black
beard was trimmed to a point; and he wore a moustache, the long ends of
which projected athwart his upper lip like a spritsail yard. His hands
were thin, showing the tendons of the fingers working under the loose
skin at every movement of them, while the fingers themselves were long,
attenuated, ingrained with dirt, and furnished with long, talon-like
yellow nails, that looked as though they never received the slightest
attention. Finally, his clothing consisted of a cotton shirt, that
looked as though it had been in use for at least a month since its last
visit to the laundress, a pair of grimy blue dungaree trousers, and a
pair of red morocco slippers.

As I lay there in the bunk, recalling the appearance of my rescuer, and
trying to evolve therefrom some definite impression of the man's
character, I became aware that the duty of the ship seemed to be carried
on with a very unnecessary amount of vociferation and contumelious
language. An Englishman will sometimes, in critical or urgent moments,
garnish his orders with an expletive or two by way of stimulus to the
crew; but upon the occasion to which I am now referring there was not
the slightest excuse for anything of the kind. The weather was fine,
the wind moderate, and we were evidently not engaged upon the
performance of some feat of complicated or difficult navigation; for the
course remained constant, and there was neither making nor shortening of
sail. It simply appeared that the officer of the watch happened to be
one of those distressing and trouble-making individuals who regard it as
incumbent upon themselves to continually "haze" the men; for he was
constantly bawling some trifling order, and accompanying it with a
running fire of abuse that must have been furiously exasperating to the
person addressed.

After an absence of about half an hour, the man who had already visited
me returned, this time bearing a large bowl of smoking broth, and a
plate containing t