Mayo took his place in the yawl and preserved meek and proper silence
during the trip down the harbor.
When they swung under the counter of the schooner which was their
destination, the young man noted that she was the Drusilla M. Alden,
a five-master, of no very enviable record along the coast, so far as the
methods and manners of her master went; Mayo had heard of her master,
whose nickname was "Old Mull." He had not recognized him under the name
of Captain Downs when the runner had addressed him.
The new member of the crew followed the mate up the ladder--only a few
steps, for the huge schooner, with most of her cargo aboard, showed less
than ten feet of freeboard amidships.
"Sleepy, George?" asked the mate, when they were on deck.
"No, sir."
"Then you may as well go on this watch."
"Yass'r!"
"We'll call it now eight bells, midnight. You'll go off watch eight
bells, morning."
Mayo knew that the hour was not much later than eleven, but he did
not protest; he knew something about the procedure aboard coastwise
coal-schooners.
Search-lights bent steady glare upon the chutes down which rushed the
streams of coal, black dust swirling in the white radiance. The great
pockets at Lambert Point are never idle. High above, on the railway,
trains of coal-cars racketed. Under his feet the fabric of the vessel
trembled as the chutes fed her through the three hatches. Sweating,
coal-blackened men toiled in the depths of her, revealed below hatches
by the electric lights, pecking at the avalanche with their shovels,
trimming cargo.
The young man exchanged a few listless words with the two negroes who
were on deck, his mates of the watch.
They were plainly not interested in him, and he avoided them.
The hours dragged. He helped to close and batten the fore-hatch,
and later performed similar service on the hatch aft. The main-hatch
continued to gulp the black food which the chute fed to it.
Suddenly a tall young man appeared to Mayo. The stranger was smartly
dressed, and his spick-and-span garb contrasted strangely with the
general riot of dirt aboard the schooner. He trod gingerly over the
dust-coated planks and carried two suit-cases.
"Here, George," he commanded. "Take these to my stateroom."
Mayo hesitated.
"I'm going as passenger," said the young man, impatiently, and Mayo
remembered what the captain had told the mate.
Passengers on coal-schooners, sailing as friends of the master, were not
unknown on the coast, but Mayo judged, from what he had heard, that this
person was not a friend, and had wondered a bit.