All at once one of them, as he lay upon the deck, began to sing, and this brought out a smart-looking officer in uniform.
“Here, get these pigs below,” he cried angrily; and half a dozen of the sailors crossed to one side, returned with a coil of rope, fastened it round the waist of one of the last-comers, and then seizing him, trotted forward, dragging him along the deck to an open hatchway, where he was unceremoniously lowered down; one sailor followed to unfasten the rope, which was hauled up, and the other men were hauled to the hatchway and lowered in turn.
“That’s the way to serve them,” said the officer to me sharply. “Some time before they get drunk again.”
He nodded shortly and went aft, while, feeling disgusted with the rough scene, I made my way aft too, and came upon quite a crowd of people, evidently friends of the passengers, bidding good-bye, many of them with tears.
“This is cheerful,” I thought, and then by an absurd change of feeling, I was hurt because there was no one to bid good-bye to me.
“Confound it all, sir, do get out of the way, please!” said another officer sharply.
I gave him a resentful look, and backed out of his way into somebody else’s, sending a man who was carrying part of a passenger’s luggage staggering, so that he caught the corner of a trunk sharply against an officer’s shoulder, with anything but a pleasant result for the burdened man, who recovered himself, and hurried to the cabin stairs, while, after apologising to the officer, I followed the man, meaning to go up on the poop deck.
But the staircase was full of people, and I dived under to go below and find my cabin, which I now resentfully remembered was not mine.
“Never mind, I’ll go and sit down till dinnertime,” I thought. “I suppose there will be some dinner some time.”
I went along by the row of cabin doors, and found that I was on the port instead of the starboard side; and, crossing over, I found the right cabin at last, seized the handle sharply, for a man was coming along with more luggage, and, turning the fastening, I was about to dive in, but the door was fast, and a quick, authoritative voice cried from within—