Guy accordingly produced the key and unlocked his valise. The sailor looked into it, examined the contents, and said:
“You can’t take them things on board ship with you, and you might as well get rid of them one time as another. Chuck ’em overboard.”
Guy was astonished, and at first felt like flatly refusing to obey the order. He had been to considerable trouble and some expense to collect the articles comprising the outfit, and he could not bear to part with them. But after a little reflection he thought better of it, and gathering them all up in his arms, he went to the door, looked up and down the deck to make sure that there was no one in sight, and threw them into the water.
The hunting-knife, on the handle of which he had intended to score a notch for every grizzly bear he “rubbed out;” the lead, which, melted into bullets, was to have created such havoc among the buffaloes and antelopes of the prairie; the traps that were to have made him rich and famous—all went down among the fishes. The rubber blankets alone remained afloat, and after giving a melancholy flap or two, as if bidding him farewell, faded from his view in the fast-gathering twilight.
“Now,” said the wheelsman, when Guy came back to him, “what’s in that bundle? Your clothes? Well, put ’em into your carpet-sack, and while you’re doing it, listen to what I have to say. I must talk fast, for both me and my partner have to be at the wheel when we make a landing. By the time we reach the pier it will be pitch dark. As soon as the gang-plank is out, take your dunnage and go ashore. Follow a long wood-pile which you will find on the pier until you come to the shore end of it, and then round to and come back to the propeller on the opposite side. Do you understand? I shall be relieved from the wheel by that time, and I’ll be standing on deck just over the after gangway. You’ll see me, and you must keep watch of me, too, for when the coast is clear I’ll wave my hat, and you must run up the gang-plank and dodge into the engineers’ locker. You know where that is, don’t you?”
“Yes; but what will the engineers say if they see me going in?”
“Nothing. I’ve talked it all over with them, and they said I might stow you away in there. They’re sorry for you because you lost your money. Behind the door of the locker you’ll find a chest with a blanket and pillow in it, and all you’ve got to do is to turn in and keep still. You can lay there as snug as a bug in a rug, for nobody except the engineers ever goes near that locker, and they won’t bother you.”
“Flint!” shouted the mate on watch at this moment.
“Ay, ay, sir!” answered the sailor. “I must go to the wheel now. Can you remember what I have said?”
“Yes, I can,” replied Guy.