It was only a few steps now to the United States Hotel, and I turned from the street and entered. A number of loungers were on the broad veranda. A group of men—one in a cocked hat and blue coat with brass buttons—were sitting about a table on which there was much to drink, and they were not slighting it.
But here no one gave me more than a glance, and I entered the coffee-room, where I found a corner and placed my little bundle at my feet. A hubbub of conversation and much strong tobacco filled the place, and the waiters were so busy that I did not know enough to insist upon gaining their attention, and no one sought me out. I had sat there but a few minutes when I became engrossed, listening open-mouthed to a group of seamen talking within a short distance of me. One of them was telling of the action between the Hornet and the Peacock, and he interspersed his talk by constantly calling to those about him to drink the health of "Lawrence, the bravest officer that ever trod a deck."
I here learned that a man may be a hero by mere reflected glory, for each one who drank with him nodded to the speaker as if Lawrence were his name. Suddenly I perceived that a man in a long apron was standing at my elbow.
"What is the order, messmate?" he asked familiarly.
I replied by asking for some coffee, and stating that I would like to get a room for the night. This evidently caused him some surprise.
"Rooms come high," he replied, looking at me, "but I can get you the coffee, right enough."
I had seen one of the sailors, in paying his reckoning, wave back the change due him into the waiter's palm, so when the man returned, I offered him one of the gold pieces in my pocket. He looked at it curiously, bit it, and took it over to a table and showed it to some of the sailors. The man to whom he handed it rang it on the bottom of the upturned plate.
"Good gold," he said, "and French. I've seen 'em often."
Whether he told the value of it or not I do not know, but soon the waiter returned with a half-handful of silver coin. I waved it back at him, and the man's eyes grew large. He returned to the sailors and spoke to them.
"Just back from a cruise, I dare say," said one, looking over his shoulder at me, but not addressing me.