The Wood Fire in No. 3 Part 6

"The Chief slipped his arm through mine, led me to a seat on the sofa beside his desk, and continued:

"'He came aboard the day before we left New York. It was about seven o'clock at night, and I had changed my clothes and was going uptown to the theatre. I stood at the end of the gang-plank for a minute looking up the dock, pretty clean of freight by that time, and this man came creeping down along the side of the s.h.i.+p, looking about him in a way I didn't like. As he got nearer he stopped under a dock light, fumbled in his pocket and brought out a letter. He wasn't ten feet from me, and so I could see his face. He read it two or three times over, turning the leaves, and then he slipped it back into his pocket again and looked up at the s.h.i.+p's side; then he saw me and came straight for me.

"'"I must go home," he said; "can you take me on?"

"'"What at?" I got a look into his eyes then, and saw he was no thief; seemed more like a carpenter or a bricklayer.

"'"Anything you can give me."

"'"Stoking?"

"'"Yes, if there's nothing else."

"'Then the Second Engineer came down the gang-plank and I turned the man over to him and went uptown. When I heard he was to be buried I sent for you, just as I had promised.'

"I had talked with Hunter about a burial at sea--it was one of the contrasts I had been waiting for. They had occurred often enough in my many crossings, but I, like the other pa.s.sengers, was never informed; such sights are not proper on our side of the wall.

"'What else did he say to you?' This question I addressed to the Second Engineer.

"'Nothin'. I put him on; we ought to have six or eight more, but we couldn't get 'em--short now.'

"'Did you find the letter?' I asked.

"'No; Doctor did. He's got it now. He read it.'

"'What did it say?'

"'Well, near as I can remember, somethin' about his comin' home; a woman wrote it. He'll tell you when he comes back.'

"'I'd like to see where he worked.' I was stretching the crack in my wall; peering into the next room, finding out how they lived and what on--all the things you should let alone, not being my business and the man being beyond hope.

"'Take him down,' said Hunter, 'and show him the furnaces. Here, better peel off that coat and slip on my overalls and this jacket,' and he handed me the garments from a rack behind his door. 'Greasy down there; and look out for those ladders, they're almighty slippery when you ain't accustomed to 'em.'

"'This way, sir,' said the Second Engineer.

"We made our way along a flat iron ledge--a grating, really, beneath which lunged huge pistons of steel--down vertical ladders into a cavern reeking with the smell of hot steam and dripping oil. All about were stars of electric light illumining the darkness, out of which stood strange shapes--a canebrake of steel rods, huge sawed-off roots of pillar-blocks, enormous cylinders rising up like giant trees from out a jungle of tangled steel.

"At the bottom of this mora.s.s a great boa constrictor of a shaft, smooth-skinned, glistening, turning lazily in its bed of grimy water, its head and tail lost in the gloom. Beyond this, along a narrow foot-path, a low open door leading to the mouth of h.e.l.l. Here were men stripped to the waist, the sweat from their reeking bodies making flesh-colored channels down their blackened skins. Some were s.h.i.+elding their faces from the blistering heat as they wrenched apart the fusing fires with long steel bars; others dashed into the mouths of a hungry furnace shovelfuls of coal, blinding the light for an instant, the white sulphurous breath pouring from its blazing nostrils. On one side before the row of hot-mouthed beasts opened a smaller cavern, its air choked with fine black dust; still other men shovelled here, filling iron barrows which they trundled out to more half-naked men before the scorching furnaces. A new gang now joined the group, men with clean faces and hands and half-scoured backs and b.r.e.a.s.t.s. This new gang had had a wash and four hours sleep in an air fouled by dust and dead steam.

At sight of them the old workers dropped their bars and shovels, disappeared through the door by which we had entered, and rolled into bunks racked up one above the other like coffins in a catacomb.

"On one side of the door through which the new gang entered was an inscription in chalk. The leader of the gang stopped and examined it carefully.

"'Clean stringers inside pocket,' the record said.

"The stringers were the cross-beams tying the s.h.i.+p together, about which the coal was packed; the pocket was one of the s.h.i.+p's bins. These instructions showed which death-pit pit was to be worked first.

"The Engineer made no explanatory remarks as I looked about. It was all there before me. The man with the letter had stood where these men stood; blistered by the same heat, befouled with the same grime, half strangled with the same coal-dust; had eaten his meals, drunk his coffee, staggered to his bunk, been carried insensible to the small square room on the deck above, laid on a cot, and was now dead and to be buried at midnight. That was all!

"Up the ladder again to a room the size of a state-room with the berths out. Inside, on a plank resting on two supports, lay the crude, roughly hewn outline of a man wrapped in canvas, a flattened hump showing the feet and a round ma.s.s the head. Past this open door men walked carrying kettles of soup for the steerage. Outside in the corridor were heard sounds of hammering; the box was being made ready.

"Up a third ladder to Hunter's room. I stopped long enough to replace my coat and wash the grime from my hands and then sought the deck.

"She was still in her steamer chair, the roses in her lap. Not a cloud dimmed the sky; a soft, fresh, sweet air blew from the moonlit sea; the pathway of silver was still clear; souls could go to G.o.d straight up that ladder without missing a step, so bright was it. From the crowded deck came the sound of voices; some low and m.u.f.fled, others breaking out into song and laughter.

"'Where have you been?' she called out. 'What did the Engineer want?

Tell me, please; something had happened; I saw it in your face. Was anyone ill?'

"'Yes; but he is better now,' and my eye travelled the pathway of silver.

"'Oh, I am so sorry! Shall you see him again?'

"'Yes, at twelve.'

"'Tell me about it; can I help?'

"'No.'

"'Is anyone with him--anyone he loves?'

"'No, he is quite alone.'

"'Poor, poor fellow! Give him these, please,' and she laid the roses in my hand.

"Some hours later the messenger again tapped me on the shoulder.

"'All ready, sir, Mr. Hunter says.'

"On the lower deck, close to the sea, a deck slashed with racing waves in a storm, were grouped a body of sailors and officers; all had their coats and caps on. Against the wall of the s.h.i.+p stood the Captain, an open book in his hand. Above his head flared a bull's-eye backed by a s.h.i.+p's reflector, marking the high light in the composition. Beneath him, almost under the book, which cast a shadow like the outstretched wings of a bird, lay a black box, straight-sided and flat-topped. I edged my way through the encircling crowd and stood nearer, the roses in my hand.

"The words now fell clear and strong from the Captain's lips, every man uncovering his head.

"'Man that is born of woman----'

"I reached down to lay the flowers on the lid--loose, as she had given them to me.

"Hunter tapped me on the arm. He was grave and dignified, and I thought his voice trembled as he spoke.

"'Better twist a bit of tarred marlin round 'em, sir,' he whispered; 'he'll lose 'em if you don't. Hand me a piece'--this to a sailor.

'That's it, sir; a little tighter--so!'

"'He cometh up and is cut down like a flower----'

"I bent over and laid the roses on the box. The men pressed closer to look. Roses, on a man like him!

[Ill.u.s.tration: The men pressed closer to look. "Roses, on a man like him!"]