“Was you reckoning as a passenger or was yer lookin’ for a chance to ship?”
That was a proposition Wilson had not considered. It had no more occurred to him that a man untrained could secure work on a ship than on a railroad.
“Think it is possible for me to get a job?” he asked. “I’ve not had any experience.”
“There’s some things yer don’t need experience fer.”
“I’m willing to do anything––from peeling potatoes to scrubbing decks.”
“There’s better nor that fer a man.”
“I’d like to find it.”
The stranger studied the younger man from the corner of his eyes, pressing down the live coals in his pipe with a calloused forefinger.
“If you was only goin’ to the West Coast, now.”
“What? Where?”