“There’s nothing else to do,” said Stephens. “I’ll isolate you in the deck smoking-cabin. God knows what these madmen on board will do when they hear about it, though. They’re apt to tear you to shreds. They’re crazy!”
Glenister had been thinking rapidly.
“If you do that, you’ll have mutiny in an hour. This isn’t the crowd to stand that sort of thing.”
“Bah! Let ’em try it. I’ll put ’em down.” The officer’s square jaws clicked.
“Maybe so; but what then? We reach Nome and the Health Inspector hears of small-pox suspects, then we’re all quarantined for thirty days; eight hundred of us. We’ll lie at Egg Island all summer while your company pays five thousand a day for this ship. That’s not all. The firm is liable in damages for your carelessness in letting disease aboard.”
“My carelessness!” The old man ground his teeth.
“Yes; that’s what it amounts to. You’ll ruin your owners, all right. You’ll tie up your ship and lose your job, that’s a cinch!”
Captain Stephens wiped the moisture from his brow angrily.
“My carelessness! Curse you—you say it well. Don’t you realize that I am criminally liable if I don’t take every precaution?” He paused for a moment, considering. “I’ll hand her over to the ship’s doctor.”
“See here, now,” Glenister urged. “We’ll be in Nome in a week—before the young lady would have time to show symptoms of the disease, even if she were going to have it—and a thousand to one she hasn’t been exposed, and will never show a trace of it. Nobody knows she’s aboard but we three. Nobody will see her get off. She’ll stay in this cabin, which will be just as effectual as though you isolated her in any other part of the boat. It will avoid a panic—you’ll save your ship and your company—no one will be the wiser—then if the girl comes down with small-pox after she gets ashore, she can go to the pest-house and not jeopardize the health of all the people aboard this ship. You go up forrad to your bridge, sir, and forget that you stepped in to see old Bill Dextry this morning. We’ll take care of this matter all right. It means as much to us as it does to you. We’ve got to be on Anvil Creek before the ground thaws or we’ll lose the Midas. If you make a fuss, you’ll ruin us all.”