WW— MMUmwiwiiiiiiiiiniiiaiiiniiiiniiHii 
 
 MORGAN ROBERTSON 
 
MASTERS OF MEN 
 
T< lo5\ 
 
A Vitai:ral<li /'>\uiiictioit. 
 
 EAKLi; WILLIAMS AND WANDA HAW 
 
 M.istrrf cf Mfti. 
 LEV IN THK niDTOJ'LAV. 
 
MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 BY 
 
 MORGAN ROBERTSON 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH SCENES 
 
 FROM THE PHOTOPLAY 
 A VITAGRAPH PRODUCTION. 
 
 GROSSET & DUNLAP 
 
 PUBLISHERS NEWYORK 
 
 Made in the United States of America 
 
COFTBieHT, 1901, 
 
 By CURTIS PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 COi>TRlQHT, 1901, 
 
 Bt doubleday, page & CO. 
 
To my Wife — o good woman 
 
 52 1 27 1 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 The Age of Stone . . . r.j w i.; 1 
 
 BOOK II 
 
 The Age of Iron . . . .; > i. 37 
 
 BOOK III 
 Barbaeism . . . . .1., . [.. 104i 
 
 BOOK IV 
 
 CiVIIJZATION . . . !.j •! r.i r.i 198 
 
MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 BOOK I 
 THE AGE OF STONE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A BOY of fifteen was being vigorously cuffed and 
 kicked by a larger boy, and a black-haired girl 
 was speeding toward them on the sidewalk, when from 
 across the street came another boy — red-haired and 
 freckled — who jumped puddles and arrived on the 
 scene coincident with the girl. 
 
 " Let my brother alone, you — you — you mean old 
 thing,'* she cried as, with flashing eyes and fingers 
 working nervously, she confronted the pair. 
 
 " Ah, gwan," answered the cufter, with a quick, 
 comprehensive glance at the working fingers and 
 sharp nails ; " he hit me wid a rock." 
 
 " He hit me first," screamed the victim. He was 
 i pink-cheeked boy in knickerbockers — the type of 
 boy that is seldom punished at home. 
 
 " Take some one your own size," said the red- 
 haired boy. 
 
 " Go chase yourself, Dick Halpin ; this ain't your 
 funeral." 
 
 " Let up — drop It — let him go ! " 
 
 " Make him stop. Oh, please make him stop,** 
 wailed the girl, changing front at the prospect of a 
 champion. 
 
 There was a confused tangle of arms and legs, 
 
2 IvL\STERS or MEN 
 
 from which the boy in knickerbockers emerged and 
 sped to the middle of the street; then, while the girl 
 wrung her hands anxiously, the whirl of combat con- 
 tinued until the larger boy shot off at a tangent, 
 and, colliding with the fence, collapsed in an aston- 
 ished heap. He had not been struck, nor was he hurt, 
 but the strength and courage of the red-haired boy 
 — smaller than himself — was so completely at vari- 
 ance with his record, as to call, first for respect, then 
 analysis and classification ; all of which required time 
 and distance. So, with a promise to " square up," 
 he arose and departed followed by a threatening " get 
 out," from Dick, and a well-aimed stone from the boy 
 in the street. 
 
 Dick Halpin, red-haired, slim and under-sized, had 
 no standing as a fighter. Not that he lacked courage, 
 or the quickest of tempers ; it simply had not come 
 to him. He possessed a dignity — or, possibly, a lack 
 of dignity — and a quiet geniality and insistence of 
 manner, which, with a certain readiness of speech, 
 had always won him his point in schoolboy friction. 
 And in schoolboy ethics there was no legitimate rea- 
 son for his interfering in this manner. He had seen 
 the treacherously thrown " rock " impinge upon the 
 head of Pig Jones, had watched the pursuit and cap- 
 ture, and knew that the punishment was deserved. 
 But he had also seen over his shoulder the twin sister 
 of the youngster. 
 
 She was the new girl in the school, whose father 
 had lately settled in the town and built the largest 
 and finest house that it contained. Unlike her 
 brother, she had made no friends and few acquaint- 
 ances ; but, with her steady dark eyes she had taken 
 the measure of every boy and girl in the school — 
 calmly staring them out of countenance, and finishing 
 
THE AGE OF STONE S 
 
 by a close inspection of their clothing. Had it been 
 less dispassionate, or had she been less of a myster}', 
 her manner would have been resented ; but, as it was, 
 girls turned up their noses only behind her back, 
 and the boys — all but Pig Jones, in whose soul was 
 neither poetry nor reverence — placed her upon a 
 pedestal and did her silent homage. She knew her 
 lessons without apparent study, asked no instructions 
 or favors, and never entered their world except in 
 quest of her brother. 
 
 Dick had been inspected early. A stumble and 
 slip in front of the school gate had sprawled him at 
 full length in a puddle and lavishly splashed her with 
 mud. His shamefaced " Excuse me " was not an- 
 swered, and not even the laughter of the boys so 
 harrowed him as the scrutiny he received. She showed 
 no annoyance, but looked into and through his gray 
 eyes as though seeking the reason of a boy's falling 
 in the mud. Then she had turned her back on him. 
 
 A little exhilarated by his conquest of Pig, he felt 
 less overpowered by her now and looked frankly into 
 her face. There was the faintest smile at the corners 
 of her mouth, but her momentary agitation had 
 passed and her expression was as inscrutable as ever. 
 
 " It was very good of you," she said in her musical, 
 womanly voice. " I wish he had a big brother." 
 
 " I wish he had," blurted out Dick. 
 
 She smiled openly at this, and looked up the street 
 at her relative, now returning from a short pursuit 
 of Pig. 
 
 " I know your name — ^Richard Halpin — " 
 
 " Dick," he interrupted. 
 
 " Dick, then — and you know mine. Do you like 
 Georgie? " 
 
 Dick did not. He had stopped a *' rock " himself 
 
4 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 a few days before, and had listened to Georgie's out- 
 spoken disapproval of red hair; but he answered, 
 " Pretty well ; though he's not big enough to travel 
 with a fellow of my size." 
 
 "But won't you see that he isn't bullied?" she 
 asked, earnestly. " He can't defend himself from 
 larger boys ; he's sickly and delicate." 
 
 Dick blushed. " No, I can't do that," he answered. 
 " I can't fight a little, much less lick the whole crowd. 
 And most of 'em are bigger than me. Besides, your 
 brother picks all the rows himself." 
 
 " Then won't you talk to him ? He won't listen 
 to me. Will you be his friend — and my friend, too? " 
 
 " Yes," he stammered, with wide-open eyes, '" if 
 you'll let me ; and I'll look out for him all I can, but 
 he must help, and keep out of trouble." 
 
 " Thank you ; I knew you would." 
 
 There was a faint tinge of color in her face, and 
 she stepped past him with a slight inclination of her 
 head, as if to bid him good morning. Then she 
 turned, smiling frankly, and said : " I was on the way 
 to school. Are you going — Dick? " 
 
 So Dick walked to school with Mabel Arthur. She 
 talked of the good points of Georgie — the mother- 
 less, abused, and generous Georgie — who, knowing 
 nothing of the alliance in his behalf, and apparently 
 unable to comprehend his sister's new state of mind, 
 convoyed them on the opposite side of the street, 
 often looking over to make irrelevant remarks. Dick 
 remembered little of what she said — only her musical 
 voice. 
 
 In an ecstasy of pride and embarrassment, from 
 a keen appreciation of his outward defects — his 
 freckles, fiery hair, unpolislied shoes, and pocket 
 bulging with a pair of swimming-trunks — Dick 
 
THE AGE OF STONE 5 
 
 passed the staring groups in front of the school, 
 nodding sheepishly to those of the boys who caught 
 his eye, and, parting from Mabel at the girls' door, 
 entered the building by the other, through which a 
 few studious boys were already straggling on toward 
 their desks. Under ordinary circumstances he would 
 have remained outside with the others until the last 
 bell had rung, but this noon he could not — he lacked 
 his usual sangfroid; he was only sixteen, and had 
 publicly played the young gentleman — escorted a girl 
 to school. Boyhood resents this departure, and he 
 dreaded gibes and jokes. 
 
 The schoolhouse was a three-storied brick struc- 
 ture, standing at the end of the village street. Be- 
 hind it and beyond was vacant land reaching to the 
 river, and across this land, cutting a few fences and 
 stone walls, was a trail used by the boys to reach 
 a famous swimming-hole, with diving-rock and 
 spring-board, a mile up the stream. It was here that 
 Dick expected to go when school closed ; and it was 
 because of a recent edict of the village fathers and a 
 cross-grained constable that he had brought his swim- 
 ming-trunks. 
 
 His class occupied the second floor of the building. 
 There were a few scholars at their desks as he en- 
 tered, and going to her seat on the other side of the 
 room was Mabel, who had beaten him up the stairs. 
 Her dark eyes lightened momentarily as she glanced 
 at him, but for that day she gave him no further 
 attention. He put the swimming-trunks in his desk 
 and advanced to the stage where the principal sat at 
 his table. 
 
MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 *'T_TERE'S my money for the team, Mr. Clark," 
 J. J. he said, as he laid a half-dollar on the table. 
 " Very well, Richard — thank j'ou." He opened a 
 drawer and took out two silver quarter-dollars which 
 he pocketed with Dick's half-dollar; then, removing 
 a dollar bill from his note-book, he slipped it into an 
 envelope with other bills, and replaced the envelope 
 in the drawer. 
 
 " Now we have it all in bills, Richard." 
 " Yes, sir," answered Dick, who had eyed the money 
 with a boy's curiosity. 
 
 Mr. Clark smiled benignly, and Dick went to his 
 seat. Through the afternoon he was repeatedly re- 
 minded that he had risen in popular estimation. 
 Girls — all but Mabel — looked curiously at him across 
 aisles and over desks, boys, one after another, caugl t 
 his eye and elevated two fingers, a signal which he 
 answered in kind. It meant swimming after school, 
 and he was amazed at the sudden demand for his 
 company by boys older and larger than himself — 
 who had heretofore preferred his room, but he was 
 shrewd enough to understand it. 
 
 Georgia never went swimming, and Pig Jones did 
 not care for Dick's society to-day, but four other 
 boys — all of them older and larger than Dick — sur- 
 rounded him outside the school. He would have pre- 
 ferred, now, brazenly to join Mabel and walk home 
 with her, but his agreement to go swimming was held 
 binding; so they started toward the swimming-hole, 
 taking, for some reason unspoken among them, but 
 probably because of their number, the country road 
 
THE AGE OF STONE T 
 
 instead of the trail. This road circled inland and 
 made the journey a half-mile longer. 
 
 With big Tom Allen on one side of him, bigger Will 
 Simpson, who had once thrashed the hotel porter, 
 on the other, and Tom Brandes and Ned Brown be- 
 hind, Dick swaggered out the road. No mention was 
 made of his fight and the resultant acquaintance 
 by the boys — they waited for him to speak and 
 explain ; but he was silent. A delicacy that was 
 partly pride impelled him to talk on any other sub- 
 ject. 
 
 When the boys had made a half mile of the journey, 
 Dick remembered that he had left his swimming- 
 trunks in his desk. Visions of a cross-grained con- 
 stable, arrest, and friction at home rose before him, 
 and he halted. " I'll go back and get 'em, boys," 
 he said, " and come out cross-cut. Go ahead, and 
 go slow." 
 
 They protested, but in vain ; he quitted them and 
 raced back. The street in front of the school was 
 vacant. The janitor had not come to close the build- 
 ing, and he mounted the first flight of stairs at a run ; 
 a little tired from the exertion, he walked quietly up 
 the last, and opened the door of the schoolroom to 
 see Georgie locking the principal's desk and cram- 
 ming an envelope into his trousers pocket. 
 
 " Hello, Dick," he said, with a red face, but brave 
 front. 
 
 " Hello! What are you doing here? " 
 
 " What are you doing? " 
 
 " After my swimming-pants. What did you take 
 out of that drawer? " 
 
 " Nothin'." 
 
 " Yes, you did." 
 
 " No, I didn't." 
 
8 :\IASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " Yes, you did. Put it back. I know the enveiopc. 
 You put that money back." 
 
 " Well— I won't." 
 
 " Then I'll make you. Your sister asked «k? to 
 look out for you this morning, and I'm goin' t# d« it, 
 if I have to do it with a club." 
 
 " Say, Dick ; don't tell her, will you, if I put you 
 on to something? She's dead gone on you." 
 
 Partly from indignation, partly from the going 
 home of the shot, Dick's face grew red. But indig- 
 nation dominated. Advancing on Georgie, he said: 
 " I know soft-soap. You put that money back — 
 quick, or I'll wring your neck." 
 
 In the end Dick was compelled to choke him before 
 he could get his hand on the envelope ; then the other, 
 in a passion of tears, went down the stairs, while 
 Dick counted the money. It was all there, — twenty 
 dollars, — and he tried the drawer, but it would not 
 open. 
 
 " The little thief has the key," he muttered ; " and 
 I've got to get it or give him away, and she won't 
 thank me for that. Nice contract I've taken." 
 
 Not caring to lose the fun up the river, and de- 
 ciding that any time before school hours in the morn- 
 ing would do to return the money, he put it in his 
 pocket, secured his swimming-trunks, and left the 
 building, taking the short cut across the fields on 
 a run. 
 
 There was no one at the swimming-hole when he 
 arrived, but the diving-rock and spring-board were 
 wet, and on the ground was Tom Allen's knife, which 
 he knew well, having once owned it. Satisfied that 
 the boys had come and gone, and wondering why 
 they had not waited, he undressed and took his swim 
 — short because he was alone and because of the load 
 
THE AGE OF STONE 9 
 
 on his mind. When he was clothed again, he pocketed 
 Tom's knife and returned by the country road, find- 
 ing the boj'^s he had started with on the ball-ground 
 across the street from the school. Georgie was with 
 them now, looking on while they listlessly threw the 
 ball one to another. 
 
 " Why didn't you wait for me, boys.? " said Dick, 
 as he joined them. " I hurried as fast as I could." 
 
 " We didn't go swimming," answered Will Simpson, 
 after an interval of silence, during which the ball 
 ceased to travel. 
 
 " Didn't .P" said Dick, in astonishment. "Why, 
 yes, you did. I found Tom's knife there." Tom 
 had drawn near. 
 
 " Here's your knife, Tom," he continued, drawing 
 it from his pocket. Tom's hand involuntarily ex- 
 tended to take it, then fell to his side. 
 
 " 'Tisn't my knife," he said, in a little confusion. 
 " I lost it a long time ago — don't know who it belongs 
 to now." 
 
 " It belongs to you, if you lost it," answered Dick. 
 " Take your knife. I don't want it. What's the 
 matter with you all, anyhow? " 
 
 They had drawn away from him, all but Tom, who 
 was examining the knife. 
 
 " Nothin's the matter with us," he answered, hand- 
 ing the knife back, "I don't want it. We just 
 changed our minds and come back. We didn't go 
 near the river." 
 
 " Well, all right, if you didn't ; but you were eager 
 enough at the start." 
 
 Dick pocketed the knife and sauntered over to 
 Georgie, hoping to be able to get the key from him, 
 or at least to talk him into reason ; but that young 
 gentleman trotted off with a fine display of indlffer- 
 
10 IVIASTERS OF MEN 
 
 ence, whooping occasionally, like a boy with a clear 
 conscience. It was unwise to pursue him openly, and 
 resolving to catch him after dark, Dick returned to 
 the boys. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THERE was something in the air. The boys 
 stopped talking on his approach, and the ball 
 went lazily back and forth with none of the usual 
 calls for a " catch." Puzzled by their manner and 
 hurt, at last he left them, wondering if it had any 
 connection with the theft of the money. 
 
 " If I can't get him to give up the key," he mused, 
 " I'll have to tell on him. Who'd believe that I was 
 trying to shield the little viper, supposing it was 
 missed and found on me? He don't seem to care a 
 hang whether he's found out or not." 
 
 It was supper time when he reached home; and, 
 first hiding the money in the stable, he went into the 
 house. At the table his grim-visaged uncle, after 
 eying him for a moment, said : " Well, sir, what 
 have you been doing at school to-day? " 
 
 " Nothing," he answered shortly, but with a sink- 
 ing heart. 
 
 " Mr. Clark was here half an hour ago looking 
 for you. He didn't tell me what you'd done, but 
 you've been up to some devilment, I'll be bound. I 
 promised your fool mother — " 
 
 Dick turned white, and jabbed viciously at his 
 food. 
 
 " I've done nothing, sir," he said slowly, " and the 
 time will come when you'll find it wise to stop calling 
 my mother a fool." 
 
THE AGE OF STONE 11 
 
 " That will do — that will do," returned his uncle, 
 raising a monitory forefinger. 
 
 Dick subsided. There was no love lost between 
 uncle and nephew, though the mild and patient old 
 aunt beside him had always been kind to the boy. 
 Dick had been thrashed through boyhood, and had 
 only escaped it lately by the peculiar way in which 
 he had taken the last, six months before. He had 
 received a harsher beating than, perhaps, his uncle 
 had meant to give him. It was the first time that 
 he had not begged off and wept under punishment, 
 and this possibly prolonged it. All that evening, 
 forbidden to leave the house, he had sat with his 
 elbows on his knees, answering sullenly when spoken 
 to, and staring fixedly at his uncle with eyes that 
 flamed green. He was ordered about, from one chair 
 to another, by the uneasy man, and at last sent to 
 bed, where the gentle old aunt followed and cried 
 over him. Then it was that the green left his eyes, 
 and the tiger-cub became a boy again, sobbing con- 
 vulsively in his aunt's arms. 
 
 The next evening his uncle listened to the follow- 
 ing dispassionate words from the now normal Dick: 
 " I've seen mother's lawyer. If you lay the weight 
 of your finger on me again, he will apply to the 
 courts for a new guardian." And there was that 
 in the boy's face which impressed the uncle. He 
 had often threatened him since then, but never at- 
 tempted punishment. 
 
 Dick had a very slight remembrance of his mother, 
 but none whatever of his father — a naval officer lost 
 at sea. He was an infant in arms when this had 
 happened, and just able to walk when his mother 
 had brought him to her elder brother's house — the 
 house that she had left, against his wish, to marry 
 
12 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 the impecunious man wlio had won her. And here 
 she had wept away her beauty, then her life. And 
 there were some that followed her to the grave who 
 averred that she had died in self-defense — to escape 
 the never-ending recapitulation of her fault — the 
 ceaseless, monotonous variations of " I told you so " 
 dealt to her by her brother. And later, on occasions 
 when the boy, screaming under the lash, could be 
 heard a block away in all directions from his uncle's 
 barn, these neighbors indignantly declared that he 
 was being slowly killed for the money left to him 
 in trust. But these remarks, born solely of sym- 
 pathy, had little credence or circulation. Though 
 as unpleasant and parsimonious a character as the 
 village contained, the uncle bore a well-proven reputa- 
 tion for integrity which stood him in lieu of kindlier 
 elements of mind. Family pride, no doubt, contrib- 
 uted largely to this fundamental honesty, as it cer- 
 tainly did to his resentment at his sister's marriage 
 against his wishes, and to his later desire that her son 
 should be properly reared. He was prouder of his 
 name than of his wealth — prouder still of himself; 
 and his townsmen, knowing this and disliking him 
 personally, had elected him town treasurer year after 
 year, and would unhesitatingly have accepted his 
 mere word of promise in any money transaction. 
 
 When Dick had finished supper he put on his hat 
 and left the house. It was late in the evening when 
 he found Georgie and ran him down as a wolf runs 
 a deer. There was argument and persuasion on his 
 side, with a picture of Mabel's grief and sliame if 
 the theft was known — and there was jeering and de- 
 fiance from Georgie ; then there was higliway robbery 
 and separation, and Dick, with a key in his pocket 
 and a bump on his head from the impact of a '* rock " 
 
THE AGE OF STONE 13 
 
 — a supply of which Georgle seemed to carry in his 
 pocket, — went home to bed. 
 
 In the morning he was up early and off to school 
 with the money in his pocket, thankful, as he climbed 
 the stairs, that the janitor was busy on the ground 
 floor; and that there was still fifteen minutes before 
 the first bell would ring, giving him plenty of time. 
 There was no one in the room as he entered; he 
 approached the principal's table, inserted the key, 
 and found that it worked unevenly, proving that it 
 did not belong to the lock ; but at last it turned. He 
 opened the drawer, placed the money in the corner 
 where the principal had lodged it, shut and locked 
 the drawer and turned — to look into the grave face of 
 Mr. Clark, who was coming out of the classroom 
 back of the stage. 
 
 " So," he said, slowly and sadly, " you became 
 frightened when you heard that I called, and decided 
 to put it back. I expected you. Did you return it 
 all.? " 
 
 " It's all there," answered Dick, weakly ; then real- 
 izing his position, he went on hotly, " I'm no thief — I 
 didn't steal that money." 
 
 " Take your seat, sir." 
 
 Dick obeyed, and Mr. Clark opened the drawer 
 with his own key and counted the bills. Then seating 
 himself he began writing, and Dick, wildly trying to 
 formulate his defense, knew, with the prescience of 
 the condemned, that the writing was for his uncle's 
 eyes. And how could he clear himself? It seemed 
 that nothing but a direct accusation of Georgie and 
 a truthful statement of fact would answer now; yet 
 he hesitated to make public his motive — to tell of his 
 new friendship and promise to a girl — such a ridicu- 
 lous promise, too. But when Mabel came in and 
 
14> MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 smiled as she passed to her seat, his wavering reso- 
 lution was strengthened. He would clear himself, 
 somehow, but he would not stab her through the 
 brother she loved. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE last bell rang, the school assembled, and 
 after the opening exercises and subsequent buz- 
 zing and shuffling of books, Mr. Clark tapped his bell 
 — louder than usual — and the hubbub ceased. The 
 principal was a tall, spare man, and his kindly face 
 was unusually stern. 
 
 " Before we open school this morning," he began in 
 his slow, steady voice, " we will dispose of a matter 
 that demands immediate attention. You all know 
 about the fund contributed by the boys for the 
 eleven's new suits. It is a matter in no way con- 
 nected with your studies ; but the theft of that money 
 has a vital connection with the school, and I am com- 
 pelled to take action. We have a thief among us. 
 The last instalment of the fund was contributed yes- 
 terday noon by Richard Halpin — Richard Halpin, 
 come forward." 
 
 White in the face, Dick arose and advanced to 
 the front. 
 
 " Richard Halpin," continued the principal ; " you 
 saw where I placed the money yesterday noon. After 
 school you returned, unlocked the drawer with a key 
 of your own, left the building, and ran through the 
 back gate and across the vacant lots. I saw you 
 from the window of my house down the street. That 
 afternoon I visited the school and noted the absence 
 of the money. I called at your home and waited for 
 you until nearly supper-time, hoping to iniluce you 
 
THE AGE OF STONE 15 
 
 to make amends by confessing and by returning the 
 money then ; as you did not come, I went home. How- 
 ever, my visit must have become known to you, and 
 you were frightened. I came to school early this 
 morning and saw you return the money to the drawer. 
 Had you admitted your guilt, I should have talked it 
 over with you, but you brazenly denied it." 
 
 " I deny it again," declared Dick, bravely ; " you 
 saw me running because I wanted to catch up with 
 the boys, and I went cross-lots, too ; I had come back 
 for my swimming-trunks." 
 
 "You were going in swimming with other boys.f* 
 What boys?" 
 
 " Some of the big fellows — we were going up to 
 the swimming-hole." 
 
 " Name the boys you went in swimming with." 
 The principal reached for paper and pencil. 
 
 " I didn't go in with them. They didn't wait. I 
 went in alone. They said afterward that they didn't 
 go in." 
 
 " They said so? Do you know this? Did you see 
 any bo3'^s at all, up there ? " 
 
 Dick could not understand how the whereabouts of 
 himself or the boys bore on the case, but he had no 
 reason to tell anything but truth about the trip up 
 the river, so he answered : — 
 
 " Didn't see anybody till I got back, but I found 
 Tom Allen's knife, and the place was all wet ; so some 
 one was there." 
 
 " Tom Allen," repeated the teacher, writing the 
 name down. " Who else was in the party which 
 started? " 
 
 "Will Simpson, Tom Brandes— " 
 
 The door burst open, and into the room stormed 
 a big man with a whip in his hand and mud on his 
 
16 ]\IASTERS OF MEN 
 
 boots. There was anger in his sunburned face, and 
 around him was tlie atmosphere of horses and cattle. 
 
 "Got 'em yet, Mr. Clark — this one of them.''" 
 He advanced on Dick, who retreated into an aisle, 
 realizing dimly as he went that trouble was brewing 
 for others as well as himself. 
 
 "No, no, Mr. Bronson," said the principal; "be 
 seated, please. This is not one of the boys you want, 
 but he has been a valuable witness. Take a chair, 
 sir, until I dispose of this boy's case; then we will 
 investigate. Were there any others.''" he said to 
 Dick. " Name the rest with whom you started up 
 the river. Come forward here." 
 
 Dick stepped out of the aisle, watching the big 
 farmer seat himself, and said quietly : " I don't know 
 what's happened, Mr. Clark, but I'm not going to 
 say any more about the crowd. If they've done any- 
 thing, it's not my business to give 'em away." 
 
 " You will not name the rest of the boys .'* " 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 " Very well. Go to your seat, pack up your books, 
 and leave the school. You are expelled, pending the 
 action of the board, which will probably confirm your 
 expulsion." 
 
 " Is this all, sir," asked Dick, uneasily-. " Have 
 I no chance to say anything? " 
 
 " What do you wish to say? " 
 
 " I say I did not take that money." 
 
 " Come. To convince you of the uselessness of fur- 
 ther denial, I will confront you with the boy who saw 
 you take the money, and who reported the tlieft to 
 me. George Arthur, step forward." 
 
 This young man left his seat and approached, 
 while Dick watched in amazement. George Arthur 
 was a peculiarly handsome bo}' — curly-haired and 
 
THE AGE OF STONE 17 
 
 bright-eyed. Halting in front of the school, he half 
 turned, and with his hands down his pockets and legs 
 wide apart, pursed his lips into an expression of 
 fifteen-year-old virtue. 
 
 " Tell the school the story you told me at my 
 house." 
 
 " I came back," said the boy, in a monotone, facing 
 the scholars, " to get my knife which I left in the 
 g'ography class, and I saw Dick Halpin from the 
 recitation room. He took the money, and I came 
 out and told him I'd tell on him, and he wanted me 
 to go halves and keep still, but I wouldn't and ran 
 out, and he followed, telling me to wait and take half, 
 but I said I wasn't a thief and I went over to Mr. 
 Clark's house and told him." 
 
 " You lie," yeUed Dick. 
 
 " Silence," thundered the principal ; but Dick was 
 past taking orders. It was a very red boy in red 
 knickerbockers whom he was pursuing down aisles and 
 over red desks and red bo3'S and girls, and he wanted 
 to catch him. A dark-e3'ed girl screamed, and others 
 followed suit. Scholars left their seats, some to get 
 out of Dick's way, others — the larger boys — to head 
 him off. Georgie was agile and cleared desks easily ; 
 close after came the enraged Dick, and behind, 
 through the aisles, a conglomerate surging mob 
 headed by the principal. But at last Dick was 
 tripped, collared by Mr. Clark, and marched to his 
 seat. 
 
 " Take your books, sir, and go," panted the angry 
 principal. 
 
 " I won't till I've had my say," cried Dick, strug- 
 gling. " Let go of me. He stole that money him- 
 self — I saw him. He tells the very story I could 
 have told if I was a sneak. He's the thief." 
 
18 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 Chivalry went to the winds. This was beyond his 
 limitations, and all the promises to all the sisters in 
 the world could not seal his lips ; he was too insanely 
 angry. Then, over in the front rank of the girls, 
 he saw Mabel, with her arms about her brother, 
 looking at him with horror in her face. The shock 
 did him good. 
 
 " Let me get out, Mr. Clark. I'll go. Let me 
 get my books," he said, quietly. 
 
 " Go," said the principal, sternly, " and if you 
 have a case, take it to the school board." 
 
 He released him, and Dick packed his books, while 
 the agitated scholars slowly resumed their seats, those 
 who sat near Dick waiting until he had marched up 
 the aisle and out of the door. 
 
 Mr. Clark resumed his position in front of the 
 school. Taking up the list of names from his table, 
 he read off, in a voice wliich boded ill for hesitaters 
 and halters, the names given him by Dick. " Come 
 forward, all of you," he said. The three boys ranged 
 themselves before him. 
 
 " You have seen, young gentlemen," began jNIr. 
 Clark, as he eyed them sternly, " the futility of deny- 
 ing a guilty action. Let me advise you. Tell the 
 truth manfully ; own up to what you have done. 
 Yesterday afternoon Mr. Bronson saw you going 
 down over his land to your swimming-place. He 
 called on me last evening and asked me to identify 
 you, for, while there, you caught his yearling colt, 
 and tied a bush to his tail. Then you laughed and 
 shouted while the colt ran himself to death. A 
 prompt admission will no doubt save you from arrest 
 and leave the matter to be settled by your parents. 
 I speak as your friend and to spare my school the 
 
THE AGE OF STONE 19 
 
 disgrace. Do you admit this ? And will you give the 
 names of the others ? " 
 
 There was admission in their faces. Not expecting 
 the sudden turn of events, they had arranged no con- 
 certed denial. 
 
 " We've got to admit it, I suppose, sir," said Will 
 Simpson at last, " but we're not bound to give others 
 away. At least I won't." 
 
 " That will do ; go to your seats. This must be 
 settled out of school." The principal added more 
 writing to the list and turned to the farmer. " Mr. 
 Bronson," said he, " here are the names of these 
 three, and the addresses of their parents." 
 
 The farmer took the list, nodded his thanks, and 
 left the building. 
 
 Then school opened for the day, but little progress 
 was made in studies. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 AFTER school that noon four boys, with gloom 
 - in their souls, mustered under a tree on the ball- 
 ground. Not one cared to go home to a dinner 
 which might be seasoned with parental rebuke ; so they 
 lounged on the grass, kicking their heels, nibbling 
 grass-bulbs, and occasionally commenting on the hope- 
 less outlook. 
 
 As they lay there. Pig Jones joined them and 
 offered sympathy and advice ; then Dick Halpin came 
 climbing over the fence at the other side of the field. 
 Swinging his books by the strap, he slowly ap- 
 proached the group under the tree. His lip was 
 swollen and there was trouble in his face ; but he was 
 calm and serious ai? he ran his eye over the party. 
 " I don't know what's up, boys," he began ; " you 
 
20 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 didn't tell me anything, but if I'd even guessed that 
 anything had happened I wouldn't have told. What 
 is it?" 
 
 " We killed a colt," answered Will, as he rolled 
 over to face him. " We didn't mean to — he got away 
 from us. But it wouldn't have been found out if 3'ou 
 hadn't had so much to say." 
 
 " And I wouldn't have had a word to say if you'd 
 put me on to it. But you didn't, and I didn't know. 
 I was trying to clear myself. That's why I told 
 where I was going. I wouldn't give any one away." 
 
 " Yes, you would," sneered Pig Jones. " Even if 
 you were one o' the gang you'd ha' told on the rest. 
 You proved that to-day — lyin' 'bout the money you 
 stole." 
 
 " I tell you I wouldn't," answered Dick, angrily ; 
 " and the man who says I stole that money is a 
 liar." 
 
 This was strong language, and too defiant alto- 
 gether from a boy of Dick's size. 
 
 " I say you stole it," returned Pig. 
 
 " Then you're a liar." 
 
 *' I say you stole it," said Tom Brandes — larger 
 than Pig; Ned Brown repeated it, and Dick, whose 
 face had tightened, answered, " You are a pack of 
 liars, and I can back it up." He dropped his books 
 and jBung off his coat; then Will Simpson, who had 
 not yet joined the allied powers, arose in his dignit3\ 
 
 " What.? " said he. " Am I a liar? " 
 
 " If you say I stole that money, you're a liar," 
 stormed Dick. 
 
 " I say you stole it." 
 
 " Then you're a liar." 
 
 There was a flourish and a tangle of fists, and Dick 
 went down. When he arose, his right eye was closing. 
 
 
 
THE AGE OF STONE 21 
 
 "Want any more?" asked his big antagonist. 
 Dick's reply was a tiger-like pounce. Then they 
 clinched; but it was disastrous for Dick. He was 
 punched, choked, squeezed, and at last lifted bodily 
 and launched headlong, falling heavily. He was no 
 match for the other, who was unscathed in the shuffle, 
 and before he arose he was kicked by Pig, who yelled, 
 " Give it to him, fellers — give it to the thief — give it 
 to the tattle-tale." His foot was caught at the second 
 kick by the prostrate boy, and he was thrown ; but 
 before Dick could do more than rise to his feet, Tom 
 Allen asked his opinion of his veracity, and the an- 
 swer brought another knock-down from Tom. Then, 
 to hurry through a painful duty, they all surrounded 
 him, kicking and pounding, 
 
 " That'll do, now, that'll do," said Will ; " we've 
 killed a colt, and that's enough." 
 
 They walked away. Dick arose to a sitting posture 
 and looked after them ; but there was no green flame 
 in his half-closed eyes ; neither had he seen red during 
 the struggle. These might come later. He had 
 thought, at the last, that he was fighting for his life, 
 and he had even entered the fracas with doubt that 
 was only dominated by his indignation and v/ill. He 
 was now thoroughly subdued, and only in the com- 
 plete absence of all fear will come the destructive rage 
 which turns all things red. 
 
 It is hardly probable that Pig's sympathy and 
 advice, or his initiative in the prelude of insult, had 
 induced the other four to this extremity of action: 
 they were young and close to Nature, and the species 
 to which they belonged but a few thousands years 
 away from the Age of Stone, when marriage was by 
 capture, and the better warrior was the better wooer, 
 admired by his fellows when successful, clubbed to 
 
22 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 death before his scornful wife's ej'es when wounded 
 or ill. Dick Halpin, by winning and then losing — 
 for some had noted her look of horror — the favor of 
 the school beauty, had called it into force — this sec- 
 ond law of Nature ; though perhaps not a boy among 
 them would admit, even to himself, that iMabel Arthur 
 was in any way connected with the animus of their 
 assault. But Pig's position was definite — he had 
 " squared up." 
 
 When they were out of sight, Dick picked up his 
 books and painfully made his way to the river-bank 
 behind the schoolhouse. There he stanched the 
 blood from his nose and bathed his head, which ached 
 and throbbed from his fury of the morning and from 
 the hard knocks it had received. Then he found a 
 shady spot on the bank, and, watching the stream 
 and farm-land beyond, tried to reduce his chaotic 
 thoughts to order. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 **T SEE my finish," he mused. "I'm a thief in 
 ■»■ this town, and I'm kicked out of school — can't 
 even get the last exam. ; hammered, too, till I can't 
 see, just for nothing. What ails them all? I did 
 them no harm. They'd have been found out in time. 
 What'll the old man do? Won't believe me any 
 more than Clark did. The young devil ! Who'd 
 think he had the nerve? Oh, I'll fix him for this. 
 But that won't help — I can't clear myself that way. 
 I'm a thief — a proven thief — and nothing'll disprove 
 it but his confession. And he won't confess — not 
 much. I could choke it out of him, but it wouldn't 
 go. He'd say it was compulsion. Wonder if it would 
 do any good to tell her straight — just how it was. 
 
THE AGE OF STONE 23 
 
 She might get it out of him; but she won't, and if 
 she believed me it would only make her feel bad — • 
 and she won't believe me, anyhow. Might as well go 
 home — no, I can't — and won't." 
 
 He waited until the second bell had rung — for he 
 did not care to meet the scholars — feeling, as the 
 clang of the last stroke dwindled to silence, the curi- 
 ous, nervous sense of liberty and loneliness which 
 comes to emancipated schoolboys. Then, when sure 
 that all were within the building, he picked up his 
 books and crossed the lots to the street. Beyond the 
 school he met Mr. Bronson, the farmer whose colt 
 had been killed, driving out in his buckboard. The 
 farmer scrutinized his face, stopped his horse, and 
 beckoned. Dick approached. 
 
 " You the boy that got expelled this mornin'.'' " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " What ails your face.? " 
 
 " Got done up by the boys." 
 
 "What boys.?" 
 
 " The fellows that killed your colt. They laid 
 me out for telling their names before I knew any^ 
 thing was up." 
 
 " All pile on to you ? " 
 
 " All that could — yes ; I guess they all got in a 
 kick or two." 
 
 " The young devils ! I'll fix 'em, though. Now, 
 I want the names of all that crowd. You didn't tell 
 all of them. Who were the others ? " 
 
 " You mustn't ask me, sir. I don't feel very bad 
 now about what I said ; but I've no quarrel with them 
 about that matter; and I don't believe in tattling, 
 anyhow." 
 
 " Well, well, maybe that's right ; but I'll find out, 
 just tlie same. But say, my boy, tell me squarely. 
 
24 :\IASTERS OF JIEN 
 
 Did you take the teacher's money? I saw your 
 tantrums at school, and it didn't look like make- 
 believe." 
 
 " I did not take it — I saw it taken, and tried to 
 make the little cuss put it back. I had to take it 
 away from him, but I didn't get the key until late 
 that night; so I had to wait till morning before I 
 could return it. Then I was caught at it, and ac- 
 cused by the very one I was trying to shield." He 
 spoke earnestly ; he wanted some one to believe him. 
 
 "But what did you do it for? Why didn't you 
 go and tell Mr. Clark?" 
 
 " I'm not that kind ; I don't tell you the names 
 you want." 
 
 " Different thing. Malicious mischief and cruelty 
 to dumb brutes is bad enough, but stealing is low 
 down. A tliiei deserves no such consideration." 
 
 " I promised — I told one of his family I'd look 
 out for him a little, and take care of him." 
 
 "Sister?" 
 
 Dick's face showed red between the bruises, and 
 the farmer grinned. 
 
 " So, so," he said ; " well, you're pretty young for 
 that. I reckon you'll pull through all right. So 
 long." 
 
 Dick watched the broad back of the farmer grow 
 small in the distance, then brought his thoughts back 
 to himself and his future. Here was the first prac- 
 tical sympathy whicli he had received — wliich had 
 crystallized into : " You'll pull through all right. 
 So long." 
 
 Would he pull through all right? The retreating 
 broad back of the farmer told him plainly that if he 
 did, it would be because of his own effort alone. 
 In a few lM>urs he would be hungry, and when he 
 
THE AGE OF STONE 25 
 
 ate it would be of food furnished by a man who had 
 less sympathy for him than had the farmer. But 
 this man held in trust money which would be his when 
 he was of age — how much, he did not know; he had 
 never inquired. But he would find out ; and he would 
 ask the lawyer's advice. 
 
 He walked briskly down the streets to the business 
 section of the town and opened the office door of the 
 lawyer who had settled his mother's estate. A 
 smirking clerk informed him that the lawyer was out 
 of town on business which would keep him away for a 
 month. With gloomy face he sauntered up the streets 
 toward the school, and, while passing a vacant lot, 
 whirled his school-books high in the air over the fence. 
 With them went his past, and the hopes, plans, 
 friendships, and ambitions which pertained to it. He 
 was no longer a schoolboy, satisfied with praise and 
 a favorable monthly report. The world was before 
 him and against him. 
 
 Yet the habit of years guided his wandering steps 
 to the vicinity of the school from whose thrall he 
 had escaped; and as he hung over a fence adjoining 
 that of the school grounds, the closing bell sounded 
 from the cupola. The scholars would be out in five 
 minutes. 
 
 Acting on a sudden resolve he placed himself near 
 the girls' entrance, where he knew that every scholar 
 in the three departments — except possibly ball- 
 players or swimmers — must pass him ; and he was 
 savagely pleased at the results. He was a peculiarly 
 ugly boy just then — scarred, disfigured, and scowl- 
 ing — and in a very ugly mood. Also, he held in his 
 hand an ugly, sharp-edged fence-picket for the benefit 
 of any boy who might feel moved to repeat or dupli- 
 cate the punishment of the ball-ground. 
 
26 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 The news of his disgrace had gone through the 
 three departments at recess and at noon. Every one 
 in the school had known Dick Halpin, but none knew 
 him now. Girls, big and little, shied by him with 
 wide-open, curious eyes, as though they were looking 
 at some strange creature which might bite. Small 
 boys acted similarly, and Georgie made a detour 
 across the street, but said nothing. The larger boys 
 glanced unconcernedly at him, and passed dignifiedly 
 by, Pig Jones only giving sign of recognition — 
 grimacing first, then dodging a sweeping blow of the 
 fence-picket. But it was Mabel whom Dick was wait- 
 ing to test, and down the street the larger boys 
 stopped and watched, equally interested. She came 
 along toward the last, and when she hurried b}' with 
 the old swift, piercing glance at his face, and turning 
 of her eyes ahead, the heart of the boy tightened, and 
 it seemed to him that the sky was suddenly darker, 
 and the air colder. He laughed, but it was not a 
 pleasant laugh — not the mirth of a healthy-minded 
 boy. 
 
 A girl a year or so younger than Dick came flying 
 back from the crowd down the street, her hair stream- 
 ing behind and her blue eyes glowing with indignation 
 and sympathy. 
 
 " Oh, Dicky," she said, as she placed her hands 
 on his shoulders and looked into his face. " I want 
 to tell you — I don't believe it — my sister pulled me 
 along, and wouldn't let me speak to you. I just hate 
 that George Arthur; I know you didn't steal it, 
 Dicky. What they been doing to you? " 
 
 A lump came in his throat and tears to his eyes. 
 " No, Bessie," he said, thickly, '• I didn't ; I told the 
 truth, and I had a fight over the other tiling." 
 
 A teacher had come between them. " Come, 
 
THE AGE OF STONE 27 
 
 Bessie, go home." And with a good-night to Dick 
 she went on. 
 
 He shouldered his picket and crossed the street to 
 the ball-ground, where in three minutes he was sob- 
 bing his heart out to the grass ; but it was not his 
 trouble that moved him, it was Bessie's sympathy and 
 faith. 
 
 Dick's interview with his uncle at supper-time, 
 though stormy and painful, was the least of that 
 day's troubles. It need not be detailed. With sneer- 
 ing and scornful upbraiding the narrow-minded old 
 man flourished Mr. Clark's note and overruled Dick's 
 sullen and defiant denial. Through it all Aunt Mollie 
 shed tears, but attempted no vain mediation. There 
 could be but one ending. An intimation from the 
 angry uncle to the effect that were Dick not his sis- 
 ter's child he would turn him out was promptly met 
 by Dick's declaration that he would save him that 
 trouble — he would go when he had finished his supper, 
 which, with the clothes on his back, he considered 
 himself entitled to. 
 
 So, with a kiss and good-by for his agitated aunt, 
 and an unboyish curse for his uncle, Dick Halpin, 
 with two black eyes and a swollen nose, and with noth- 
 ing in his pockets but a jack-knife and a key — 
 neither of which belonged to him — went out into the 
 gloom of the evening to face the world. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 WITH his hands in his pockets he trudged 
 through the quiet streets and out into the 
 country road, thinking deeply. His headache was 
 gone, and his sore spots, though still alive, not pain- 
 
28 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 ful enough to prevent a brisk walk, the most con- 
 ducive to thought in some temperaments, and he 
 reviewed the happenings of the last two days. So 
 rapidly had events crowded one another that it 
 seemed weeks back when he had walked to school with 
 Mabel Arthur — envied of all boj's. And viewed in 
 the light of these events, she was more than ever now 
 like a creature of some higher species, or inhabitant 
 of some distant planet, who, Avithout responsibility, 
 had entered his life, done him harm, and left it. But 
 she was still the central figure of his thoughts, taking 
 precedence over the boys who had ill-treated him, the 
 teacher who had misjudged him, the scholars who had 
 snubbed him, and even Bessie and his Aunt Mollie — 
 his only friends now. The first was only a " young 
 'un " whose good will he had lately won by a timely 
 rescue of her kitten, and the second was so associated 
 with and overshadowed by the disagreeable person- 
 ality of his uncle that she had failed, with her passive 
 negative temperament, of making any deep or lasting 
 impression on his mind. As for his uncle, he had 
 ceased almost to think of him, and hoped soon to 
 forget him. 
 
 He would ask Mr. Bronson for work, study in 
 the evening, finish the senior course, and go to New 
 York, where he would get a position in a store, or 
 office, and study law, or medicine, thus getting a 
 better education than the other boys could get in the 
 high school. And when he was a prosperous man, 
 witli good clothes and a silk hat, and a gold watch, 
 he would come back to the village and put up at the 
 hotel. And the only people in the whole town whom 
 he would recognize would be Aunt Mollie and Bessie. 
 He would kick George Arthur out of his way if he 
 came in front of him. He would take Aunt Mollie 
 
THE AGE OF STONE 2» 
 
 — without his uncle's permission — and Bessie, out 
 riding, and pass Mabel Arthur on a crossing, where 
 she would have to wait until they passed by. And 
 he wouldn't speak to her or see her at all ; but he'd 
 give her a chance later on to speak to him, if she 
 wanted to, and apologize ; and when she did, he would 
 just lift his silk hat politely, and — 
 
 There was a smothered growl in the rear; then 
 sharp teeth grazed his leg and closed on the slack of 
 his trousers, while he was nearly thrown by the 
 impact of a bulldog who had come down to the 
 gate. 
 
 " Hang it," he exclaimed, " even the dogs are down 
 on me." 
 
 He recognized the large frame farmhouse standing 
 back in the darkness as that of Mr. Bronson, and 
 he had once enjoyed a passing acquaintance with the 
 dog; so he spoke to him kindly and firmly. But 
 words count for little with bulldogs on duty, and he 
 tried to kick. The dog dodged, growling the while 
 and gathering in more cloth, until Dick was forced 
 to call for help. The door opened, and in the stream 
 of light far within people stood and peered into the 
 darkness. 
 
 " Call your dog away, please, Mr. Bronson," cried 
 Dick. " I can't shake him off." 
 
 Two men ran down the path and into the road. 
 One was Mr. Bronson, and the other a giant of a man, 
 who lifted the dog in the air with a mighty kick, 
 just as the cloth began tearing. Half of Dick's left 
 trouser-leg went with the dog, who squeaked once, 
 and trotted into the house, still shaking the cloth. 
 
 " It's me, Mr. Bronson," said Dick. 
 
 "By ginger! What's the matter.? Turned out, 
 or run away.-^ " 
 
30 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " I guess it's both, sir. I can't live home any 
 longer." 
 
 " I know that uncle o' yours. He's a nice old 
 plum. Come into the house, boy, and we'll talk it 
 over." 
 
 In spite of his protests that his trousers were 
 torn, he was taken into the large kitchen, where 
 Mrs. Bronson, a cheerful-faced woman, stood with 
 the piece of cloth in her hand — replevined from the 
 dog — and laughed at him. It is given women to laugh 
 at man's calamity. They inherit the tendency with 
 their long hair and the critical faculty, as a sexual 
 characteristic. Observe their uncontrollable risibles 
 on a crowded street when a man falls down, or loses 
 his hat, or makes an undignified jump to save his life. 
 Men do not laugh at the victim. They stop the hat, 
 assist the fallen one to his feet, or mentally anath- 
 ematize the motorman, and forget the circumstance 
 in a minute. 
 
 But though Mrs. Bronson laughed at him, she 
 hustled him into a bedroom, told him to throw out 
 his trousers for her to mend, and go to bed if he 
 pleased. And Dick was pleased — very much. 
 Stretched between cool sheets, he congratulated him- 
 self on the happy end to a hard day, and fell asleep, 
 but wakened soon from his own hard breathing, and 
 because of the talk in the kitchen, which concerned 
 him. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 IN the few embarrassed moments of his stay in the 
 kitchen he had noticed the big man who had 
 kicked the dog, and recognized him as one he had 
 seen at times through his boyhood swinging alon^- 
 
THE AGE OF STONE 31 
 
 the streets from the station to the country road and 
 back — a sunburned man, dressed in the big-collared 
 shirt and wide-bottomed trousers of the navy, who 
 was reputed to be Mr. Bronson's brother. It was his 
 voice, a deep, rolling baritone, which he heard as he 
 wakened. 
 
 " Can't tell anything about circumstantial evi- 
 dence," he was saying. " Things get twisted around 
 mighty curious sometimes, and everything points to 
 the wrong man. On that chance alone I should say 
 that the kid didn't take the money. That's a smart 
 boy — too smart to put back anything he'd lifted." 
 
 " But he was seen taking it," said Mr. Bronson's 
 voice. " Another boy saw him and told ; that's why 
 he put it back." 
 
 " Yes, and tells a likely yarn, too, you say ; and 
 this one tells an unlikely yarn. Consequently, I'm 
 with him ; I'm on the other side of circumstantial evi- 
 dence — or positive evidence where there's an object 
 in making it. If t'other kid stole it he couldn't ha' 
 got out of it nicer. Down in the navy yard, on the 
 Trenton, Sam Davis, one of the 'prentice boys, fin- 
 ished his time and got his discharge and money. He 
 was a likely youngster and had got up to be captain 
 o' the mizzentop, so he had a good boodle due him — 
 'bout two hundred. Well, he'd shaken hands all 
 'round after breakfast, and was just going out the 
 gangway port when something caused him to reach 
 in and feel of his munk-bag — little leather bag we 
 carry our money in when we have any, you know — 
 and there was nothing in it. So, some one had it, 
 sure. He fired his bag and hammock in on deck and 
 swore he wouldn't quit the ship till he got it. It was 
 there when he turned in night before, he said, be- 
 cause, though he admitted being three-sheets-in-the- 
 
8£ MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 wind when he came aboard, he was straight enough 
 to make sure of his money 'fore he went to sleep. 
 Well, the officers took up the case and called all us 
 mizzen- and main-top men to quarters while the chief 
 master-at-arms went through our dunnage. They 
 found the roll in my hammock 'tween the mattress 
 and canvas. Then they made me turn out my pockets 
 and found a pocket-piece — a Japanese ten sen — which 
 Sam thought a good deal of and never let go out of 
 his hands. So the thief — which was me, 'cording to 
 the evidence — had gone through his pockets as well 
 as his munk-bag while he was sleeping off his drunk." 
 
 " You ought to be ashamed to sit there and tell 
 it, Ned Bronson," said Mrs. Bronson's voice. 
 
 " I didn't take it. I'd borrowed his knife day be- 
 fore and returned it. The coin must ha' stuck 'tween 
 the blade and handle and dropped out in my pocket 
 without either of us knowing it. It was a penknife, 
 not the big lanyard knife. Well, I had a good rec- 
 ord, and swore black and blue that I was innocent, — 
 and even Sam didn't like to believe it, — so they didn't 
 put me in the brig, but let me sling my hammock in 
 the old place, and that night Sam himself cleared me. 
 He had skipped out with his dunnage, got full again, 
 forgot that he was out o' the old ship, and that night 
 sneaked aboard, and the gun-deck corporal stowed 
 him under a gun carriage for the night. 'Bout an 
 hour later he caught him fooling 'round my hammock 
 trying to stow his wad of bills under my mattress. 
 He was sounder asleep than I was, and I'm a pretty 
 sound sleeper. Corporal reported it in the morn- 
 ing, and it cleared me." 
 
 " Oh — sleepwalking." 
 
 " Yup — and whisky. A man'U do things when 
 he's drunk that he won't remember till he loads up 
 
THE AGE OF STONE 33 
 
 again. I tell you, circumstantial evidence is no 
 good." 
 
 " I believe it was all made up between you and your 
 friend Sam," said Mrs. Bronson. " You're a bad lot, 
 you sailor men." 
 
 " Circumstantial evidence is no good, I tell you." 
 
 " 'Tain't conclusive, I admit," said Mr. Bronswi, 
 " but it's a help. That boy in there knows the names 
 that I need to make up my list. That's all I want 
 of him." 
 
 " He's too bright a boy, anyhow, to stagnate 
 around this blasted old town. Send him down to 
 the Minnesota, and I'll make a sailor of him. I like 
 that boy; he showed nerve with your d — d dog, and 
 he's got character. Bet you don't get any informa- 
 tion out o' him." 
 
 Dick listened no more. His mended trousers were 
 inside the door, and he dressed himself. Stepping 
 into the kitchen, he confronted the two men smoking 
 at the table. Mrs. Bronson had disappeared. 
 
 " I wasn't asleep, Mr. Bronson," he said, " and I 
 heard." He spoke unevenly, for there was a lump ia 
 his throat. Turning to the other, who was regard- 
 ing him with an amused look in his brown face, he 
 said : — 
 
 " You are right, sir ; I'll tell on nobody. All I 
 want is a place to work and sleep. Do they have boys 
 of my size in the navy? " 
 
 " Lots o' them. Want to enlist ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, I do ; I think I would like it. My father 
 was a naval officer." 
 
 " It's a tough life, and it makes a machine of a 
 man; but as I understand your case it's about the 
 best thing you can do. Are you healthy — ever have 
 fits.?" 
 
34 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " I'm as health}' as I can be. No, I never had fits 
 yet." 
 
 " Can you climb? " 
 
 " I can climb trees." 
 
 " Can you keep your temper when you feel like 
 murder? Can you grip your tongue 'tween your 
 teeth when a young pup just out o' the naval acad- 
 emy calls you a swab, and a soger, and a farmer? " 
 
 Dick swiftly reviewed the day's ordeals, and an- 
 swered : " I could if I had to, sir." 
 
 " You'll have to, never fear. Got any money? " 
 
 " No, sir — not a cent." 
 
 " Well, I'll tell you. You can hoof it to New York, 
 and starve by the way, but 'taint necessary. Fare's 
 eighty cents, and guardian fee's a dollar. I'll go a 
 dollar eighty on you. I'm guardian to three young 
 rapscallions down there now. You'll ship as third- 
 class boy, at nine a month and rations, but you'll 
 only get liberty money until your time is up — when 
 you are of age. By that time you'll have seen some- 
 thing of the world, and can make a better start in 
 life, or ship over again, if you like it. You can pay 
 me the dollar eighty in instalments out of your lib- 
 erty money. 
 
 " Bill," he said to the farmer, " let this bo}' stop 
 here till his face gets in shape again, and if I'm gone 
 then, send him down to the ship. I'll leave you the 
 money." 
 
 " Well, all right. But say, youngster, I'll give you 
 the money — I'll make it two dollars — if you give me 
 the names of the other boys." 
 
 " No, sir. I'm obliged to Mrs. Bronson, but I'd 
 rather walk out." 
 
 " All right, all right," said the farmer, impatiently. 
 " I'll get 'em. Go to bed again. Good luck to you." 
 
THE AGE OF STONE 35 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 A WEEK later Mabel Arthur was handed a pack- 
 age addressed to her at the post-office. It con- 
 tained a key, and a letter which she read, and then, 
 hurrying home, read again after supper, in her room. 
 It ran as follows : — 
 
 "U.S.S. MixxESOTA, Sept., 1893. 
 
 "Miss Mabel Arthur: Here is the key which your brother 
 used to open Mr. Clark's desk that day you asked me to look 
 out for him. It was because I said I would that I did not 
 want to give him away. So I took tlie money away from him, 
 but he had the key, and late that night I took the key away 
 from him, all because I promised you. You know how I was 
 caught putting the money back next morning; but you be- 
 lieved I stole it the same as all the others did. I did not 
 take it, but I wanted to keep my promise to you. I loved you, 
 and you are not worth powder to blow you up. 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 " Richard Halpin". 
 
 " P.S. I've shipped in the navy, and you will never see me 
 again." 
 
 Mabel folded the letter, and idly tapping the 
 window-sill with the key, watched the details of the 
 garden without disappear in the gathering darkness ; 
 then she arose and approached an old-fashioned 
 writing-desk, to put the letter away. There was no 
 key in the lock, and almost involuntarily she inserted 
 the one in her hand ; it turned the bolt easily. She 
 lighted the gas, and with eyes that were large with 
 growing terror, examined the key. It was old-fash- 
 ioned as the desk, but told her nothing. She exam- 
 ined every keyhole in the room. They all contained 
 keys, which, one by one, she tried in the desk; but 
 none would turn the lock but the first. She opened 
 the desk, and carefully blotting out with ink the lines 
 declaring Dick's sentiments and his estimate of her 
 
S9 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 YaJue in powder, threw herself face down on the bed. 
 
 An hour later her brother's whoop on the street 
 without told of his arrival for the night, and v/hen 
 he entered the house she called him into her room. 
 Fifteen minutes later she called her father from the 
 library, and five minutes after she was in the street 
 with the key and letter in her hand, speeding toward 
 the residence of Mr. Clark and stopping her ears 
 against a harrowing sound — a sound which brought 
 neighbors out of doors and caused many a jocular 
 comment over the fence, a boy's wailing screams 
 punctuated by the sharp thwack of a trunk strap. 
 
 Neither she nor her brother attended school again ; 
 but on the following morning Mr. Clark, with a 
 troubled face, addressed the scholars, and announced 
 the complete exculpation of Richard Halpin from the 
 offense with which he had been charged, by the con- 
 fession of the real culprit, whose name he saw no 
 occasion to divulge. He added a few moral reflec- 
 tions concerning the peril of too hasty conclusions 
 based upon the outward seeming of things, and 
 warned them of the folly of yielding under adverse 
 pressure, as Richard Halpin from a lack of moral 
 stamina had yielded, to the extent of embracing, 
 openly and brazenly, disgraceful fighting, — he luid 
 attacked his schoolmates, it seemed, — and, as had 
 become known next morning, running away from 
 home. However, if any of the scholars should happen 
 to know where he was, it would be advisable to let 
 him know of his exoneration. 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 37 
 
 BOOK II 
 
 THE AGE OF IRON 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THERE was smothered excitement throughout the 
 ship. A boy had run up the gun-deck main- 
 hatch ladder three steps at a time, dodged forward 
 and mounted the fore-hatch ladder to the spar-deck 
 at the same speed; then he had sped to the closed-in 
 space on the forecastle. Another boy had followed, 
 then another; and there was that in their faces to 
 induce men and boys lounging on the deck and sitting 
 in ports to close books with a snap, to put awaj^ 
 sewing-gear, or hurriedly finish tasks they had " sog- 
 ered " at, and join the scattering streams of blue- 
 jackets crowding up from the decks below. 
 
 Ensign Breen, officer of the deck, shivering at the 
 gangway in a closely buttoned overcoat, saw the com- 
 motion and mustering of men and boys, and turned 
 his back. He was a young man, not twenty-four, 
 with a pleasant face, as brown as Caucasians may 
 become — nearly as brown as his hair and cheery 
 eyes ; for he was just back from a tropic station, 
 and had not yet bleached out or grown accustomed 
 to the wintry chill of this navy-yard berth. 
 
 "Who is it this time. Quartermaster?" he asked 
 of a big man who stood near him. 
 
 " Don't know both, sir," answered the Quarter- 
 master, touching his cap ; " but one of 'em's my boy. 
 He's lickin' all hands as fast as they'll take it." 
 
 "What's his name.?" 
 
38 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " Halpin, sir; apprentice. He's one of the Maine's 
 crowd. I'm his guardian." 
 
 " Halpin .'' I've noticed him. What's his grudge 
 against all hands .'' " 
 
 " No, grudge, sir. But you see, when he shipped 
 four years ago, he was an underbuilt little runt, and 
 every small scrapper in the ship who could box 
 thought it right and proper to soak Dick because he 
 was a red-head. He'd fight 'em, but always got done 
 up, until the cap'n o' the hold, and a few more of 
 us, noticed his quick movements, and trained hi.ii in 
 boxing. Then came his turn, and he had all the fun. 
 He was cock-o'-the-walk 'fore he went to Newport. 
 He isn't quarrelsome, sir; but there's a lot o' strange 
 men in from the Southern Station, and the buckoes 
 among 'em don't know Dick, and he looks so soft 
 and innocent that they begin rubbing his fur wrong 
 way, and then they get surprised." 
 
 The young officer smiled, and he looked at his 
 watch. It was the first dog-watch, and there were 
 twenty minutes before the time for the next disturb- 
 ance of the ship's company — mess formation. 
 
 " Bronson," he said in a tone that the orderly and 
 messenger boy at the gangway could not hear, " go 
 forward and watch it unofficially. Report the result 
 to me. Don't let it go too far, though." 
 
 " Very good, sir," answered the quartermaster, 
 with a grin. He left the bridge, went forward and 
 crowded his way into a circle of fully a hundred men 
 and boys surrounding two who, stripped to under- 
 shirts, were resting after a round, and listening to 
 advice from their seconds. One was Dick Halpin, 
 twenty years old, five feet ten inclies in height, scjuare- 
 shouldered, full-chested, with his freckles drowned in 
 darker tan, and his hair changed by the action of 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 39 
 
 the sun and wind to a color which might be called 
 coppery, but never red. It was uncut and wavy, — 
 too long for a landsman careful of his personal ap- 
 pearance, — but it formed an agreeable border to his 
 sunburned face, and harmonized peculiarly with his 
 gray eyes. 
 
 His antagonist was taller and heavier — and slower, 
 as evidenced by his well-marked face and hard breath- 
 ing. The fight, short as it had been, was nearly 
 finished when Bronson arrived. As he elbowed his 
 way to the front rank of excited and whispering 
 onlookers, time was called, and the combat resumed. 
 The larger man struck wildly and heavily, making no 
 effort to guard; but not a blow reached the agile, 
 writhing, whirling body of the other, who dodged 
 and ducked, sprang forward and back, planting light, 
 stinging, and exasperating taps on his face and breast 
 with almost the quickness of a rattlesnake's stroke — 
 smiling through it all. Three times Dick circled 
 around, then, seeing an opening in the lax guard of 
 his tired opponent, he sent his right fist, with the 
 weight of the body behind, squarely under his ear. 
 The impact lifted the man, large as he was, off his 
 feet, and he fell heavily to the deck. Time was called 
 as he began to move. 
 
 A pent-up hubbub broke loose. The enthusiasm, 
 though softly expressed, was genuine and heartfelt. 
 Boys surrounded Dick and shook hands, glad of the 
 privilege. Bronson clapped him on the back with a 
 force that made him wince, and then disappeared. 
 " Bully for Dick — Cock-o'-the-walk now, hey, Dick," 
 said the boys. " Dick's a Greco-Romo-Boxo-wrastlo 
 — Dick'll be Jimmy Legs yet — no, he won't — not over 
 two hours — he'd be disrated — Dick, you want to do 
 up Jimmy Legs next; he got me two hours guard 
 
40 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 duty — go for him, Dick." A small boy, the pet scamp 
 of the ship, dragged a larger boy up to Dick and 
 said : — 
 
 " Lick my brother for me, Dixie. He's too fresh. 
 Lick him, and I'll be your clerk and cut the notches. 
 Dick's got a stick full o' notches." And Dick, put- 
 ting on his shirt, smiled, but said nothing. 
 
 The defeated one painfully arose to his feet and 
 the crowd pushed them together. Dick extended his 
 hand. 
 
 " It's all right, Halpin," said the other as he took 
 it. " You've done me up fair and square ; and I 
 knew you were workin' up to it — knew it four years 
 ago." 
 
 " No, Billson, you're wrong. I'm working up, yes ; 
 but not for you. I never held a grudge against any 
 one in the navy — or against any one who'd fight fair. 
 I only thought you and I ought to have it out." 
 
 " It's all right, Dick ; I guess you're best man 
 aboard now." 
 
 "Best man," laughed Dick; " Bronson could shut 
 his hand on the pair of us." 
 
 The crowd was dispersing, and Dick descended to 
 the gun-deck where he belonged, while Billson sought 
 the galley and the cook's ministrations toward the 
 improving of his damaged countenance. Fighting, 
 though against the written and spoken rules of the 
 service, is generally winked at in a ship holding five 
 hundred men and boys, the officers feeling that it is 
 much better for tAvo who disagree to go through a 
 short, sharp, and decisive appeal to fists — at the end 
 of which both may shake hands — than for one to 
 develop a bullying spirit and the other an unneedcd 
 sense of injury. Both are inimical to their efficiency. 
 But though Billson had fought this battle with an 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 41 
 
 animus bom of dislike and jealousy, Dick, on the con- 
 trary, had entered it with a joke on his lips and a 
 laugh on his face. 
 
 There was a settled, cheerful light in his gray eyes 
 that had not been there in his school-days, as though 
 he felt kindly toward the small world he was con- 
 quering. As Bronson had testified, his first days in 
 the training-ship were grievous ones — marked by 
 cuffs, kicks, and insults from boys he could pick up 
 and carry — until he had learned to defend himself. 
 Then came a hard-fought battle with an Irish main- 
 topman, and victory which made the next enemy easier 
 to face. For six months after this, until his transfer 
 to the Newport Torpedo Station, his dog-watches 
 were spent either in boxing practice in the fore- 
 hold, or in settling disputes of the day on the fore- 
 castle. 
 
 He had easily passed the final examination in the 
 ship's school when he enlisted, but this did not deprive 
 him of his love of books or of his studious habits. 
 He became almost a daily patron of the ship's library, 
 and in the only compulsory studies, seamanship and 
 gunnery, he advanced rapidly, tutored by his friend 
 and guardian, Bronson. He had boxed the compass 
 in one lesson, had stationed a gun-crew in two, and 
 had learned the parts of the ship and the knots and 
 hitches used in lashing hammocks and housing awnings 
 in a week. He also learned things not prescribed by 
 the regulations, such as the tricks necessary in the 
 navy to escape unpleasant duty. The difference be- 
 tween the apothecary's clerk and the executive officer, 
 and the minimum of respect which would satisfy the 
 latter, he had learned in one harrowing interview. 
 But at the end of a month he applied for examination, 
 and became a second-class apprentice with a new bag 
 
42 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 and hammock-number, which transferred him from 
 the after guard to the maintop. 
 
 His friction with his mates reacted on his mind, 
 giving him, as he acquired dominion over them, an 
 easy confidence in himself, and decision of speech 
 which brought him local promotion, — he was made 
 boy-captain of the maintop. And Dick's rule over 
 the half-hundred hoys in the maintop was kindly, yet 
 thorough. He never reported for punishment a boy 
 who refused obedience to an order ; he repeated the 
 order to a second boy, and later on used the first in 
 his fist practice. But he had little trouble of this 
 kind ; his wonderful quickness of motion and growing 
 proficiency with his fists impressed the whole ship's 
 company, and made the majority his friends. Boys 
 liked the genial, composed fellow who would hit them 
 hard with a smile on his face, hit them harder 
 through the consequent fight, and smilingly advise 
 them on their weak points when he had defeated 
 them. There was one boy, however, with whom Dick 
 did not, during his probationary period, come to 
 satisfactory conclusions. This was Billson, an ap- 
 prentice, then captain of the forecastle, who, on 
 Dick's bewildering first day on board, had chased 
 him aft with clouts and unkind words. He was the 
 champion boxer among the boys, and Dick had 
 wisely avoided a second meeting until sure of him- 
 self; but before this, had come his transfer to the 
 Newport Torpedo Station for further instruction in 
 torpedo work and rifled gun practice, and Billson's 
 transfer to a sea-going cruiser. Six months at New- 
 port made Dick a first-class apprentice, and he was 
 sent to the Alliance, sloop-of-war, in which he made 
 a cruise and mastered the sea duties of a sailor in 
 a square-rigged vessel — steering, handling of sail, 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 43 
 
 sending yards and masts up and down, and the usual 
 boat, fire, and collision drill. Then a year in the 
 big steel cruiser Chicago and another in the new 
 battleship Maine had finished him, and he was back 
 to the receiving-ship Vermont, a passed-seaman ap- 
 prentice, trained and paid by the government to 
 fight, and to use as weapons fists, clubs, cutlasses, 
 pistols, rifles, machine guns, rapid-fire guns, turret 
 guns, and Whitehead torpedoes. And here he had 
 found old shipmates of four years ago, among them 
 Bronson and Billson, and had polished off the latter 
 at the instigation of the former, who loved the boy 
 as he would a son, and whose mind retained a vivid 
 picture — painted by Dick — of a scene on a ball- 
 ground, where his boy had been kicked about by 
 five others. Bronson often talked of this scene at 
 the petty officers' mess, and hoped fervently that it 
 should be given him to be on hand when that boy 
 returned and met the five. It was to this end that 
 he had arranged for Dick's training in the first days, 
 and had now egged him on to try conclusions with 
 the skilled BiUson as a last test of his prowess. 
 
 Dick was not revengeful. The bitterness of his 
 last days at home had long left his mind, but the 
 punishment of those boys had been so thoroughly 
 impressed on his mind as a duty he owed to himself 
 and his calling, that he looked forward to it with 
 the same expectant equanimity that he would toward 
 a coming fight on the forecastle, or a transfer to 
 another ship. 
 
 As for George Arthur, his fate and punishment, 
 in Bronson's mind, were so clearly a matter for 
 Providence to attend to, that he was seldom 
 thought of. 
 
44. MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 DICK had no sooner reached the lower gun-deck 
 after the fight with Billson than the stentorian 
 voice of the chief boatswain's mate came down the 
 hatchway : " Halpin. Halpin — pass the word for sea- 
 man Halpin to report to the officer of the deck." 
 
 The cry was taken up and repeated, echoing for- 
 ward and aft on three decks ; before it had ceased 
 Dick was touching his cap to Mr. Breen. 
 
 " You have been fighting, sir," said the officer, 
 assuming a stem expression of face. 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " I hear that you are the most quarrelsome char- 
 acter on board — that you are continually fighting 
 and abusing your shipmates." 
 
 " I didn't know that, sir," said Dick, soberly. 
 
 " You began when you enlisted, I have heard, to 
 thrash every boy weaker than yourself." 
 
 " No, sir, I did not. They thrashed me — all who 
 wanted to. It's very easy to get into a row, sir.'* 
 
 " And since then you've thrashed them, is that 
 it.?" 
 
 Dick noticed a quiver at the corner of Mr. Breen's 
 mouth, and answered boldly, " I just finished the last 
 of that crowd, sir; we had words this morning over 
 brass work." 
 
 The officer hummed a tune softly while he studied 
 the brown back of Bronson, busily engaged in look- 
 ing unconcerned, yet taking in every word. 
 
 " Where is your home, Halpin.-^ " he asked, after a 
 searching look into Dick's face. 
 
 " I have none, sir ; I came from Allville, up near 
 the state line." 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 45 
 
 "Allville," repeated the officer, half to himself. 
 " Do you know — well, never mind. Halpin," he said, 
 earnestly, " quit this fighting. It works against you 
 in the long run. I've noticed you around the decks 
 and have heard good reports of you from the officers 
 of the Maine. 1 want you for a shipmate. Say noth- 
 ing to the men, but the New York will want a draft 
 soon. I shall go in her and may be able to have 
 you placed." 
 
 " The New York — thank you, sir. I hear it's the 
 Mediterranean." 
 
 "Either that or the South Pacific; but it's a 
 desirable berth." 
 
 " How long before the draft, sir? " 
 
 " A couple of weeks." 
 
 " Then I'd better apply for my liberty at once, 
 sir. I'm entitled to a week." 
 
 " Go ahead — and be good." 
 
 Dick saluted, and returned to the gun-deck with 
 a very high opinion of Mr. Breen. After supper, 
 when Bronson was off duty, he sought him, and they 
 had a conversation which so affected the big quarter- 
 master that he applied for liberty in the morning 
 and went ashore. When he returned, forty-eight 
 hours later, he was accompanied by two marines 
 from the gate guard, who steered him to the officer 
 of the deck, and reported his misconduct, — entering 
 the yard intoxicated, blowing smoke in their faces, 
 bumping the sergeant's head against a stone wall, 
 and using language disrespectful to the Marine 
 Corps and unbecoming a petty officer of the navy. 
 For which Bronson, though extremely repentant, had 
 his shore leave stopped for a month. 
 
 " And I can't go along, Dick," he groaned. " I 
 can only give my blessing." 
 
48 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 And not only his blessing, but sound advice and 
 superintendence did he give, to the result that Dick, 
 who would have journeyed home alone, was induced 
 to take with him an appreciative and enthusiastic 
 squad of youngsters. " Not to stick your oars in," 
 Bronson enjoined upon them, " or to stand in his 
 way ; it's his funeral. You're a guard of honor — 
 you're to prevent more than three jumping on him 
 at once." And so, when a liberty crowd of a hun- 
 dred men and boys marched out of the navy yard 
 a few mornings later, twelve of them waited with 
 Dick outside until the rest had scattered into ad- 
 joining streets, then boarding a bridge car, and 
 arriving at the New York side, took the elevated 
 road uptown to the Grand Central Station, where 
 Dick bought excursion tickets for all, and handed 
 them around. They were on three da3's' liberty. 
 They had been carefully selected on their records 
 from a hundred eager applicants by the discriminat- 
 ing Bronson. They were devoted to Dick, and each 
 felt a respect for himself and his calling based on 
 his training in the service, and a chronic sense of 
 injury which came only of his parentage; for all but 
 Dick were Irish-born, — mulligans, they were called, 
 — and Dick himself inherited red hair, which is 
 conducive to latent pugnacity, at least. 
 
 Truly Bronson had chosen wisely. There were 
 Casey, Sullivan, O'Toolc, and Devlin, shipmates of 
 Dick on the Maine; Shannon and Doyle from the 
 Atlanta; Billson, whose first name was Dennis, from 
 the Chicago; and Webster, Scanlon, Killroy, Kccgan, 
 and Kerrigan from the Miantonomah. All wore the 
 cap ribbons of their last ships ; all were in shirt 
 sleeves, — for, the weather being fine, the uniform 
 of the day had not included pcacoats, — and all, ex- 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 4T 
 
 cept Dick, who paid car fare and expenses, were 
 penniless, and for this reason had not been off the 
 Cob-dock for months. Tliirteen bronzed, active, 
 muscular young sailors on liberty — thirteen un- 
 leashed terriers — were invading a quiet country town. 
 
 At the station, while waiting for the train, Dick 
 had his first misgivings. Kerrigan would borrow a 
 dollar of him and treat the crowd, and being denied 
 the pleasure, threatened to " shake him," and only 
 changed his mind when he was sternly directed by 
 Dick to " clear out." Then Dick delivered a short 
 lecture in the station on the wisdom of temperance, 
 and advised those who would not take orders from 
 him and submit to his management of the job, to 
 stay behind. He would much rather go home alone, 
 he said, as he left town with a good reputation, and 
 was a little ashamed of the company he was now in. 
 This, with Dick's known superior education and 
 habitual correctness of speech, impressed them. 
 They reproved Kerrigan, and vowing good conduct 
 and obedience, passed through the gate and boarded 
 the train, which, at one o'clock in the afternoon, 
 landed them at Allville. 
 
 The first thing, of course, was something to eat, 
 and Dick marshaled them across the street and into 
 the dining room of what had been the Allville House, 
 but now, with a new coat of paint and larger sign 
 and barroom, was the Hotel Morrisey. " Dinner for 
 thirteen," he ordered of a waiter as they seated 
 themselves, " and bring me the bill in advance." 
 
 " Now, boys," he said, as he pocketed the change, 
 " I shall hurry through and find the lay of the land, 
 while you wait here. Understand me — no drinking; 
 you've got no money, but you might be treated. 
 Take cigars." 
 
48 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 They said they would. Dick bolted his dinner 
 and hurried out, passing in the door a red-faced man 
 in an alpaca coat and immaculate shirt-front. This 
 man looked after him as though he would have 
 spoken, then, spying the party at the table, bounded 
 toward them. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 DICK passed into the business street of the town, 
 where familiar faces peered at him. But none 
 recognized in the bare-throated, sunburned sailor, 
 swinging along with a man's vigorous stride, the 
 under-sized, freckled schoolboy who had disappeared 
 under a cloud. On his part, he did not care to make 
 himself known. There were changes, — a trolley line 
 had been established, and new buildings replaced some 
 that he remembered. The town had become a city ; 
 a new city hall arose from the park, with a police 
 station on the lower floor; a bright-fronted theater 
 faced the park on a side street, and next it was a 
 Salvation Army barracks, while a red brick build- 
 ing, with blue-shirted men lounging in the open door- 
 way, through which could be seen a fire engine and 
 hose-cart, testified further to the prosperity of the 
 town. These changes pained him. It was no home- 
 coming to Dick ; he had loved the scenes of his boy- 
 hood. 
 
 " Ought to see Aunt Mollie first," he mused, as he 
 reached the resident portion ; " but I won't — not till 
 evening. She'd keep me too long. Here's Bessie's 
 street — if she still lives there." 
 
 He was in a side street, and soon readied one of 
 a row of Queen Anne cottages — the kind wliicli dom- 
 inates all others in the suburbs of American cities. 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 49 
 
 There was a brighter, more cared-for look to all of 
 them than there had been, and especially did the one 
 before him indicate the prosperity of its owner. The 
 fence had been removed, flower beds had been laid 
 out on the lawns, showing here and there with the 
 dead grass through shallow snow-banks, while from 
 within came the sound of piano music — improvised 
 chords in minor. 
 
 " Bessie had no piano," he said ; " but she liked 
 music. Wonder if the old man's made his pile. I'll 
 see." 
 
 He mounted the steps, opened the door of a storm- 
 house, and touched a button inside. " Electric bells," 
 he muttered. 
 
 The music ceased and was followed by the patter 
 of light feet ; then the door swung open and a young 
 lady was facing him — a fluffy-haired creature with 
 pink-and-white cheeks, who looked at him with wide- 
 open, surprised eyes. 
 
 " Hello, Bessie," he said, cheerily; " how are you.'' 
 I've come — why, Bessie, don't you know me? " 
 
 " I — really — " she began doubtfully, while she 
 drew back into the hallway, " I — why, Dick — Dick 
 Halpin — where did you come from.''" 
 
 She advanced with a smile of genuine welcome in 
 her face, and extended her hand. Then she invited 
 him in and seated him in a corner of the parlor and 
 herself in another, where she studied his face, with 
 a half-smiling, half-nervous expectancy on her own. 
 
 " Anna is at school to-day," she said at last, " and 
 mamma is down town. They'll be home soon ; they'll 
 be glad to see you." 
 
 " All right. Now, Bessie, tell me the news. 
 What's happened.!^ Going to school yet?" 
 
 " Yes," she answered, demurely. " But I'm home 
 
60 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 to-day because I expect — I expected company. Your 
 class graduates in a few days, and they will have 
 their commencement exercises in the new theater." 
 
 " Entertainment — oratory — singing — and all 
 that.?" 
 
 " Yes, and Will Simpson, you know — you remem- 
 ber him — is valedictorian." 
 
 " He is, eh — um-humph. Where's Tom Allen now, 
 Bessie.'' At school.? " 
 
 " Yes ; he graduates too." 
 
 "Tom Brandes and Ned Brown.''" 
 
 " Graduates. But why, what's the matter with 
 them.?" 
 
 " One more, Bessie, please. Where's Pig Jones.? " 
 
 " Ran away from home, and nobody knows where 
 he went." 
 
 " Good — thank you, Bessie. You're a brick — 
 you're a full-powered newspaper — and, oh, by the 
 way, where's young Arthur.? " 
 
 " Didn't you hear.? He went to the Naval Acad- 
 emy over three years ago. He was sent to a pre- 
 paratory school just after you left." 
 
 Dick whistled softly. 
 
 " And some time I'll have to take orders from 
 that," he muttered. 
 
 " I'm really grateful, Bessie," he continued seri- 
 ously as he arose to go. " I came only on business, 
 and you've helped me tremendously." 
 
 " You came on business," she queried, " and have 
 catechised me as you pleased, but you've told me 
 nothing of yourself. Where have you been all these 
 years.? Did you bring any message? " 
 
 "Message — no, Bessie, who from? I wanted to 
 see you." 
 
 Without knowing why, Dick saw that she was 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 51 
 
 immensely relieved; she smilingly invited him to sit 
 down again. 
 
 " I'm in a hurry now, Bessie," he answered. " But 
 I'll call again this evening." 
 
 " I haven't invited you to call this evening." His 
 face straightened a little. She saw it and said gently, 
 " You see I have an engagement." 
 
 " Oh, all right ; I'll hunt another sweetheart." 
 
 " Yes ; then try Mabel again," she said, sweetly. 
 " She's a lovely girl now. Nothing like what she 
 was when — when she wasn't worth powder to blow 
 her up." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 DICK'S face flamed. He had resolutely put 
 Mabel from his mind, and even the mention 
 and thought of her brother bore no relation to the 
 memory he cherished of his boyish regard for her. 
 He would not have spoken of her; but Bessie had 
 broken his guard, and with the sound of her name 
 came an eager desire to hear of her, which contrasted 
 painfully with his humiliation ; for how could Bessie 
 quote from his letter if it had not become public 
 property .P 
 
 "So she showed you that, did she?" he said at 
 last. 
 
 " No, she did not," said Bessie from the depths 
 of a sofa, where she had collapsed in her laughter. 
 " But as my most intimate friend, she quoted to 
 me your opinion of her. Oh, ' I loved you, and you 
 are not worth powder to blow you up.' " And Bessie 
 was again overcome. 
 
 " Well, have it out with yourself, Bessie," he said. 
 
52 PIASTERS OF MEN 
 
 painfully ; " and then tell me. How is she ? I 
 haven't heard of her since I left." 
 
 Bessie arose and laughed no more. His face for- 
 bade it; but she was still woman enough to tease him. 
 
 " She is very well, I believe, and at home now. 
 I may see her to-morrow. Would you like to send 
 a message by me.'' No. Well, I shall say that I've 
 seen you, anyway. She would be delighted to meet 
 you again, I know. 
 
 " Of course," the girl went on with feminine ma- 
 lliciousness, " Mabel is enormously popular. She 
 came out last year, and she has lawyers, doctors, 
 literary men, artists, well — all kinds of men, in her 
 train, with a few millionaires thrown in." 
 
 " And she," he began, awkwardly. 
 
 " She — well," purred Bessie, " there is Mr. Breen, 
 of the navy — have you met him ? " 
 
 "Breen — Ensign Brcen?" repeated Dick. 
 
 " Yes, Ensign Breen. She met him before her 
 debut, and his chance should be good. He is a 
 sailor. Her first love letter came from a sailor, and 
 he will get the reflected benefit." 
 
 For the purpose of further tormenting him, Bessie 
 had said too much. Dick knew the pay and mar- 
 riage value of an ensign, aside from the element of 
 love, which would have reached a definite point in 
 less than two seasons. This had flashed through his 
 brain without process of reason. But what hard- 
 ened him was the following thought — that of the 
 vast social gulf between himself and the ensign, be- 
 tween a sailor before the mast and a commissioned 
 officer. 
 
 " Bessie," he said with a mock courtesy and reck- 
 lessness born of his conflicting emotions, " were I 
 worthy, I should extend through you my congratu- 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 53 
 
 lations to Miss Arthur on her conquest. Were I 
 in a position to advise, I should caution her to be- 
 ware of naval officers — especially ensigns. They do 
 not earn as much as the ship's cook, and their wives 
 take in washing to clothe them." 
 
 " Why, you cannot mean it," said the astonished 
 girl. " Mr. Breen is an ensign, and I know — " 
 
 " Ensign Breen," said Dick with fine anarchistic 
 scorn. " Ensign Breen, of the Vermont. Why, 
 Breen killed a Kanaka woman with hasheesh in the 
 Straits of Sunda last cruise but one. Got a wife 
 in 'Frisco, two in Antwerp, and a whole harem in 
 the Sandwich Islands. Got knifed in Bio for run- 
 ning a dual establishment; and he pays alimony in 
 four towns on this coast, and — " 
 
 " I don't believe a single word you say." 
 
 She had grown an inch taller. Her eyes were 
 snapping and her finger-nails were buried in the palms 
 of her hands, while her cheeks, but for two little red 
 spots which came and went, were white. 
 
 " Fact, Bessie — why, what's the matter.? " 
 
 She threw herself on the sofa and buried her face 
 in the pillow. 
 
 "What's the trouble, Bessie.'^" he asked. Then, 
 dimly realizing the truth, he began to explain. 
 
 " I was only joking; it was all a string of lies. 
 Didn't think what I was saying, Bessie — honest. 
 Don't cry any more, now. I'm sorry. I wouldn't 
 make you cry for anything. Mr. Breen's a good 
 fellow — one of the best. He's my officer." 
 
 " There must be something," she sobbed ; " you 
 would not dare say such things unless you knew." 
 
 " You mean that where there's smoke there's fire, 
 Bessie.'' It's all smoke, every bit. You stirred rae 
 up, and I didn't care what I said." 
 
54 iVIASTERS OF MEN 
 
 She sat up and dried her e^'cs, while he sang the 
 praises of Ensign Breen, ascribing virtues to liiin 
 that would have astonished the young officer had he 
 heard. But Dick, with a sore heart of his own, felt 
 a large and generous sympathy for other aching 
 hearts, and an especial interest in Bessie, his onl}' 
 friend in the old trouble, who evidently loved this 
 man. She listened quietly — eagerly — and at last 
 smilingly. 
 
 " I must go, Bessie," he said, wlicn he felt that 
 he had undone the harm of his thoughtless words. 
 " Mr. Breen and I will go out in the New York. If 
 you like, I'll write you occasionally, and give you 
 the news. Will you answer a letter now and then? " 
 
 " Why, of course," said the subdued girl ; " I shall 
 be glad to hear from you and glad to write to you." 
 And perhaps each knew, without further compact, 
 the kind of news expected of the other. Dick se- 
 cured his cap and they stepped into the hall. 
 
 " Promise me," she said, as she opened the inner 
 door for him, " that you will not speak of — this — 
 to ]\Iabel, or — to Mr. Breen." 
 
 " Of course I won't, Bessie. Officers don't ex- 
 change confidences with blue- jackets, and as for the 
 other — we're not acquainted. Good-by, Bessie; I'll 
 write." 
 
 " Good-by, Dick." 
 
 Her pretty face, with its pleading look not yet 
 supplanted by the coming smile, was close to him. 
 Obeying an impulse, he suddenly passed his arm 
 around her waist. 
 
 " Don't, please don't ! " she cried as she endeav- 
 ored to escape ; then, helpless in his strong grasp, she 
 remained passive, while he kissed her. When he 
 looked up he stared into the startled face of Ensign 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 65 
 
 Breen, who, in citizen's clothes — high hat, silk-faced 
 top-coat, and all — was standing in the outer door. 
 Dick confusedly knuckled his forehead, — his cap was 
 on the floor, — but the officer ignored him. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Miss Fleming," said Mr. 
 Breen as he lifted his hat, " but the bell was inside, 
 and I opened the outer door. I am very sorry. 
 Good afternoon." 
 
 He turned and was gone before she could reply. 
 Bessie sank into a hall chair. 
 
 " Here's a pretty mess," muttered Dick. " Bessie, 
 I'm sorry, honest, I am; who would have thought 
 he'd have shown up ? " 
 
 " I," she said, rising and pointing to the door. 
 " I expected him. You do not know the harm you 
 have done. Go, and do not come back. Do not 
 write to me or ever speak to me again. I hate you." 
 
 " Well, all right," he answered humbly, picking up 
 his cap ; " I'm sorry, Bessie — that's all I can say." 
 
 But she had entered the parlor. He opened the 
 door and passed out, with an opinion of himself 
 that he had never held before. Down the street, 
 just turning the corner, was Mr. Breen, stepping 
 briskly along with the erect, graceful carriage that, 
 somehow, is never acquired but at Annapolis and on 
 American quarter-decks. 
 
 " Going around to call on her, I'll bet," he 
 growled. 
 
 Humiliated and self-reproachful, burning with 
 jealous curiosity, his moral fiber somewhat weakened, 
 he did what at other times he would not have done. 
 He followed the ensign and saw him mount the steps 
 of the large house he remembered so well. Then, in 
 a mood which unfitted him for even his own company, 
 he went down to the hotel. 
 
56 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 DICK found his men in the barroom, noisy and 
 talkative, surrounded by an admiring crowd of 
 villagers. One glance told him the situation. 
 
 " Hooray here, Dick, me lad,*' called the red-faced 
 man behind the bar. " I know ye by reputation. 
 Yer Ned Bronson's best lad, and I'm his best friend-- 
 Step up here, Dick, and have one wid me." 
 
 " Thank you," said Dick, savagely ; " I'm not 
 drinking;" and then, to the others, "I don't need 
 you — not a blasted one of you. Breen's in town — 
 I've just seen him. Do you want to go in the brig? '* 
 
 " It's all right, Dick," they protested. " We had 
 just one apiece. That hurts no one. This is Mor- 
 risey's place — " 
 
 " As many as can toe a line," interrupted Dick, 
 " I'll use— no more. Fall in." 
 
 They formed a line, every pair of toes just touch- 
 ing a crack in the floor. 
 
 "Count fours," called Dick. "One," said the 
 first; the next called two, the next three, the next 
 four; then they began at one, until the groups of 
 fours were numbered. 
 
 " Twos right — march ! " he called, and as they 
 formed double column and marched through the door, 
 Morrisey whooped and ran for his coat and hat. 
 Dick saw, by the clock over the new city hall, that 
 he had fifteen minutes to spare before the closing 
 bell of the school would ring, and as this time was 
 ample, he marched his guard by roundabout streets, 
 so as to avoid a possible meeting with Mr. Brccn. It 
 was a new spectacle in the town, and soon the side- 
 walks on both sides in the rear were crowded with 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 57 
 
 a growing throng of boys and a few men and girls. 
 Over the heads of those just behind the parade 
 loomed the stovepipe hat and joyful red face of 
 Morrisey. Dick, sullenly conscious of the interest 
 they had aroused, muttered : " Might as well have 
 brought a brass band as this gang; but I'll carry it 
 through if we have to clean up the town." 
 
 On the next street was the school. Dick wheeled 
 them around the corner, halting them in open order, 
 a file on each side, with himself at the head. Op- 
 posite was the ball-ground ; he could see the tree 
 under which he had been mobbed; and across the 
 years of his wandering at sea came to his mind in 
 all its early force the wrong and the rage of that 
 last day, softened only by the warm-heartedness of 
 Bessie. Not even his regret for his treatment of 
 her now availed to stem or relieve the overflow of 
 latent fury which the scenes of his humiliation and 
 disgrace set free. He wished that Mr. Clark, who 
 had branded him as a thief, would come out and 
 interfere. He wished that George Arthur could be 
 there, to receive his undivided attention for only a 
 minute, and — yes, that his sister, who believed him 
 a thief, could be there to witness. And as for the 
 townspeople behind, if they interfered — ^well, he had 
 twelve " mulligans " to attend to them. 
 
 The bell i« the cupola above clanged its dozen 
 strokes and ceased. Then the same old janitor of 
 four years back emerged from the basement stairs 
 at the side and threw open the doors of the girls' 
 entrance. With a curious glance at the two lines 
 of blue, he passed along and opened the entrance 
 for the boys. In a few minutes, laughing, shouting 
 youngsters of both sexes — the junior department — 
 emerged and hovered near the sailors, curiosity 
 
58 MASTERS OF ]\IEN 
 
 silencing their noise. Next came the senior depart- 
 ment, bojs of between thirteen and sixteen, and 
 pretty, graceful girls, most of whom Dick remem- 
 bered as " young uns " in knickerbockers and short 
 dresses. They passed through and around the wait- 
 ing blue-jackets with curiosity scarcely less than that 
 of the juniors, and halted with the spectators beyond. 
 Then appeared the high school scholars — ladylike 
 young girls and well-dressed young men, who paired 
 off, here and there, and stepped briskly down toward 
 the gauntlet. They were closely scrutinized by Dick 
 as they passed, but none recognized in the young man 
 at the head of the lines the schoolmate of the past. 
 It was for him to make himself known. He placed 
 himself before a heavily-built young gentleman, in 
 gloves and buttoned overcoat, whose full mustache 
 had almost disguised him. ^ 
 
 " Stop," he said in a voice that was almost a snarl. 
 "You're Tom Allen, aren't you.'' Yes — Tom Allen. 
 Know me? No? You don't know me. I'm the tliief 
 and the telltale. I'm Dick Halpin. I'm here to re- 
 peat what I told you once before — over there on the 
 ball-ground. Tom Allen, you — are — a — liar." 
 
 CHAPTER XV ' 
 
 W HA— what? Eh. Hello, Dick. Didn't 
 know you. When d'you get back ? " said 
 Tom, too surprised to comprelicnd Dick's attitude. 
 
 " That's not the question,"' answered Dick. He 
 stooped and picked up a sliver of wood from the 
 sidewalk, which he balanced on Tom's shoulder. Tlien 
 he knocked it off, and as Tom smiled weakly and 
 placidJj at tlie declaration of war, he struck him in 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 69 
 
 the face. Tom understood; his lip was cut and his 
 nose bleeding. 
 
 " Let me alone," he whined, but Dick sprang be- 
 hind him, struck out again with all his strength, and 
 Tom staggered toward the line of blue-jackets. 
 
 *' Pass him through," called Dick ; " he's had 
 enough." 
 
 With jells and laughter they passed him through. 
 Tom, in a state of unstable equilibrium, chassed 
 down the line, kept from falling by the alternate 
 blows he received from each side. Before he had 
 received the last and floundered to the sidewalk be- 
 3'-ond, Dick, realizing the magnitude of the task he 
 had set for himself, bounded toward the waiting 
 group at the gate. 
 
 Confronting him was the stern-faced Mr. Clark, 
 his old teacher. 
 
 " Is this you, Richard Halpin ? " he said, menac- 
 ingly. " Stop this at once, or I shall send for the 
 police." 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Clark," answered Dick ; " and as you're 
 too old for me, I advise you to keep out. I've started 
 to lick the gang that licked me, and I'll do it, too. 
 And if you call your police, they'll get hurt — that's 
 all." 
 
 " He won't lick me," said a tall, broad-shouldered 
 and well-dressed young man, who stepped to Mr. 
 Clark's side. It was Will Simpson, the boy who, at 
 sixteen, had thrashed a man ; and he was removing 
 his outer garments. Dick, with wide-open eyes, 
 waited until he had hung them over the fence, then 
 asked, "Ready?" 
 
 " Yes — ready ; always ready," answered Will, 
 dryly and composedly, bringing his two big fists to 
 position. 
 
60 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 But before they were quite in position — almost 
 before the last word had left his lips — Dick had 
 planted both fists between his eyes. Will staggered 
 against the fence, recovered and advanced aagrily. 
 But the strength and skill that had made him a village 
 champion were of no avail before Dick Halpin — a 
 seaman apprentice of the navy. Shameful and bitter 
 before his schoolmates was his punishment, as Dick, 
 unhurt by his lunging strokes, danced around him, 
 and at last, when he made a wild rush, sent him to 
 earth. 
 
 " Any more.'' " cried Dick, in an abandon of reck- 
 lessness. " Webster — Scanlon. Here — take care of 
 this one in case he wants more." 
 
 These two advanced, lifted the demoralized Will 
 Simpson to his feet and escorted him to the ranks. 
 Dick, with flashing eyes and dilating nostrils, the 
 battle-fever in his soul, pushed through the scatter- 
 ing, agitated group at the gate and caromed into a 
 white-haired old gentleman whom lie knew as the high 
 school principal, but who had no knowledge, past or 
 present, of Dick. 
 
 " Stand clear, sir," he cried to the shocked old 
 gentleman ; " I'm reforming your school." He 
 brushed past him. " Ned Brown, Tom Brandes," he 
 muttered. "Are they here?" 
 
 Up the street, toward the country road, was a 
 group — scholars of both sexes, and among them, as 
 he looked, Dick recognized the faces of the two he 
 had named — tall young fellows who had the appear- 
 ance of being able to run. He could catch one, but 
 not the other. Turning the other way ho beheld 
 Mr. Clark and the high school principal hurrying 
 past his shipmates. An indignant crowd surrounded 
 the sailors, and down the street — two blocks away — 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 61 
 
 were three policemen, with drawn clubs, coining on 
 a run. Dick grasped the situation at a glance. 
 *' Devlin — Kerrigan," he called, " come here. Look 
 out for the cops behind you, boys. Clear out. Turn 
 those fellows loose and muster at the station at six." 
 
 Devlin and Kerrigan arrived. They were joyful 
 of soul, and possessed, besides, the additional quali- 
 fication of good records in the Cob-dock footraces. 
 
 " Boys," said Dick, as he pointed up the street, 
 " see that long-geared fellow in the derby hat and 
 short overcoat, near the tree? That's Ned Brown. 
 Get him. He'll run, but get him. If he wants to 
 see me, bring him to that tree over there. If he 
 don't, tap him once for me and meet us at the sta- 
 tion — six o'clock. Understand .f* No mistake, now. 
 I'll get my man, and that'll finish up. Hurrah, now. 
 Come on." 
 
 Away they went on a keen run, and the boys ahead 
 of them scattered. Dick had chosen Tom Brandes, 
 who waited for him behind a tree across the street, 
 then, dodging as he was about to seize him, sped 
 diagonally across the ball-ground toward the side 
 streets and his home. He was speedy, and Dick 
 settled down to a long chase. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 *'T70U have met him.? Where.? What is he 
 JL like.? Is he doing well.? You have been here 
 
 two hours and only just tell me." 
 
 " He is doing very well," said Mr. Breen, dryly ; 
 
 " very well indeed. And not the least in retaining 
 
 your interest so long. Let's see; how many years 
 
 have sadly flown.? " 
 
62 IVIASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " Please be serious," Mabel Arthur answered, with 
 a hint of color in her face; " I ought to explain. I 
 feel responsible for his leaving home and school. We 
 were only children, of course. He left under a cloud, 
 and Bessie has always said that if he went to the 
 bad it would be my fault." 
 
 In any face but that of Ensign John Breen, the 
 expression might have been a sneer; in his it was 
 but a lukewarm smile. 
 
 " And Bessie is interested ? " he asked. 
 
 " Of course ; why, she believed in him when I did 
 not. Later, it all came out. He was accused, un- 
 justly, of stealing, and expelled from school. His 
 uncle turned him out, and he went away. I have 
 never heard from him since. I hope he is success- 
 ful." 
 
 " He is. He is a seaman-gunner of the navy, now 
 in the Vermont with me. He is one of the finest 
 products of the apprentice system that I've seen — 
 tall, athletic, refined in speech — educated, I'm told, 
 almost to the requirements of a commission — hand- 
 some in a way, and a favorite with all hands — and 
 the ladies." 
 
 "I'm so glad; and where is he now — in Vermont, 
 did you say.? " 
 
 " On board the receiving-ship Vermont; but in 
 town to-day." 
 
 " In town.? Here— in AUville.? " 
 
 " I saw him two minutes before I called. He must 
 have come up on the train ahead of me.'* 
 
 " Why didn't you bring him with you.? You know 
 I would like to see him." 
 
 " You forget that it Is two years or more since 
 you expressed the desire ; besides, I doubt that a sailor 
 would care to make social visits with an officer." 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 6S 
 
 " I understand the sarcasm ; but I do want to see 
 him. Where was he ? " 
 
 " He was very pleasantly occupied. Had I been 
 enjoying myself so thoroughly, I would hardly have 
 come on the instant — even had you sent for me." 
 
 She looked searchingly at him, with inquiry in her 
 face ; and, after a moment's musing, she said, " But 
 do you think you could induce him to — " 
 
 " You would have me hunt him up, and extend 
 your invitation.'' I will do so, provided he is on the 
 street." He arose as he spoke, and the lines of his 
 face hardened a little. 
 
 " No, no, I was thoughtless. You are an officer — 
 he is a sailor." 
 
 " I am not in uniform." 
 
 " No — sit down again. It would grate and harrow 
 your very soul. Men may forgive anything but a 
 humiliation. I will write to him." 
 
 " I should think," he said dryly, as he seated him- 
 self, " that a letter would answer every purpose." 
 
 " Sometimes I hate myself," she said slowly, as 
 she studied the carpet. " Do you know what I did ? 
 When he was disgraced and expelled ? He stood out- 
 side when school let out, and he looked as if he had 
 not a friend in the world; and every immaculate one 
 of us snubbed him — except Bessie. I shall never 
 forget the look in his face when I passed him." There 
 were decided tears in her eyes now, and all that 
 Mr. Breen could say, in a rather strained accent of 
 voice, was, " Bessie has a good heart — a big, gen- 
 erous heart." 
 
 " Indeed she has. And she was so indignant when 
 she learned it all. It was a year later, for I went 
 away to boarding-school, and we did not become 
 friends until I got back. Neither of us knew at the 
 
64 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 time all that, had happened. Why, there were five 
 boys, all larger than he, who set upon him, and 
 kicked him almost unconscious ; and he was brave, 
 and fought them ; but there were so many — the great 
 — big — brutes. Poor little Dick ! '* 
 
 " Poor little Dick," repeated the ensign. " Poor, 
 big, broad-shouldered, iron-fisted, quicker-than-chain- 
 lightning, able-seaman Halpin. I wouldn't care to be 
 one of the five when he meets them. The other day, 
 I was told, he lifted Big Billson — two hundred pounds 
 — right off his feet with one blow. He's a terror, 
 poor little Dick." 
 
 She turned her face to the window, as If to hide 
 the inconsistent smile that was showing there. Then, 
 with an exclamation she arose to her feet. 
 
 " Look ! look ! " she said. 
 
 Mr. Breen reached her side at a bound. A wild- 
 eyed youth with his hat in his hand had rushed 
 around the comer of the house from the back yard, 
 pursued by another, who caught him at the foot of 
 the front steps. 
 
 " There," said the ensign, " there is your poor 
 little boy ; and he seems to be upholding his later 
 record." 
 
 "Is that Dick Halpin, really? Is that Dick? Oh, 
 isn't he changed? Isn't he a man! But what is he 
 doing ? " 
 
 She looked with startled eyes at the pair outside. 
 They were both panting, and one cringed before the 
 other, who stood erect, holding him by the collar. 
 Their voices could be plainly heard — one quavering 
 with fear, the other angry and strong. 
 
 " You're not worth it, Tom Brandes," Dick was 
 saying; " but to finish the job, you've got to take it." 
 Tom lowered his head, but the fist did not fall. 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 65 
 
 Dick's face had assumed a wondering, puzzled look 
 as he glanced up and down the street, and it changed 
 to one of certainty when his eyes rested on the front 
 of the house and the two figures in the window. His 
 grip loosened on Tom's collar ; the young man shook 
 himself free, and fled though the gate, while Dick, 
 with his flushed face a shade redder, and an almost 
 defiant light in his eyes, drew himself to full height 
 and brought his hand to his cap in a stiff salute. 
 Then he turned, passed through the gate, following 
 Tom down the street at a walk. The ensign had 
 answered the salute, but Mabel had inclined her head 
 and smiled before it was given. 
 
 "Was that one of the five.?" asked the ensign, 
 cautiously. She had left the window and seated her- 
 self in a chairi 
 
 " Yes ; I know them all." 
 
 " Let me try to explain," he said, gently ; " he 
 might have removed his cap, of course, to a lady ; but 
 I think he was embarrassed, and on the spur of the 
 moment answered with the service salute." 
 
 " He saluted you ; he would not look at me. I 
 deserve it, I know ; but I would have explained — I 
 would have apologized. It was due him. Now, how 
 can I? " 
 
 " Explain through Bessie — whatever it is. They 
 must be very good friends. He visited there to-day. 
 I saw him — on my way here." 
 
 " At her house," she exclaimed, standing erect ; 
 " then that is why — what she meant — she expected 
 company — she could not come over to-day." 
 
 As an officer and a gentleman must not tell all he 
 knows, Mr. Breen may be excused in not naming 
 himself as the company expected. It might have 
 involved explanations of the shortness of his stay. 
 
66 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " She must have known all about him — all this 
 long time," she continued, as she paced the floor. 
 " It is the deceit — the deceit that hurts. She was 
 always talking about him. And she never told me. 
 I could not deceive her so. Explain through her? 
 Not I. But — I am a woman now, and it is due 
 myself to atone for the selfish fault of a child — in 
 the only way that is left me. You see him often. 
 Will you say to him — " 
 
 " Pardon me," he interrupted. " No, I cannot. 
 I can have nothing but official relations with him. 
 Oh, I would like to be a blue-jacket," he burst out 
 vehemently, " a nice sailor-boy, with a big fist and 
 a big nerve and an interesting past." 
 
 "Mr. Breen, what do you mean?" she said 
 slowly. 
 
 " I beg your pardon — really, I do," he said, while 
 his face softened. " I ought not to have spoken so, 
 but, you see, I never before knew a sailor so far 
 above par. I believe I'll go ; and not come again 
 until I am on better terms with myself — that is, if 
 I may." 
 
 " You will stay right here and have dinner with 
 us. Father will be home in a few minutes. No, 
 you must stay — I insist. If you like you may take 
 me to the theater this evening-. I have tickets." 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE contractions of facial muscles known as 
 smiles, grins, sneers, and frowns are prompted 
 by emotions varying from those of pleasure to those 
 of pain and anger. Other changes of feature, such 
 as result from surprise, grief, or fear, thougli equally 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 67 
 
 distinctive, have not been denominated. A few of 
 them are duplicated in the faces of animals, but often 
 from a contradictory cause. A dog and a hyena 
 will grin, and the latter will laugh, but not from a 
 sense of humor; and these apparent inconsistencies 
 and accidental variations in cause and effect have 
 prevented science from classifying the relations be- 
 tween the emotions and the muscles as an exact study. 
 In spite of this difficulty, however, one iconoclastic 
 reasoner has attempted to trace the origin of the 
 smile — which alone in the list may be considered 
 a human attribute — by a backward flight to the days 
 when our ancestors hung by their tails to the limbs 
 of trees and were as dexterous with their toes as with 
 their fingers, when the first law of Nature was in 
 supreme force, and the struggle for existence so bitter 
 as to exclude all pleasure except that of eating — 
 when, other things being equal, the individual who 
 first got his or her mouth open was the one to close 
 it on food. Hence, says this reasoner, arose the 
 habit of opening the mouth in good time; and the 
 anticipation, has descended through the ages and has 
 produced, through evolution, the smile. 
 
 Think of this, young mother. Your baby, dim- 
 pling under your caresses, receives the im.pulse from 
 a tailed and hairy ancestor, ravenously parting two 
 rows of yellow tushes in hungry anticipation. 
 Young man, as you bask in the radiant joy and 
 tenderness beaming through the beauty in your sweet- 
 heart's face, remember that her smile is an ancestral 
 trait based upon the empty stomachs of her progen- 
 itors. Girls, trust him not because he merely smiles. 
 The founders of his family raced and fought for 
 food,, and survived the struggle because their mouths 
 were ^arge and their jaws strong. That is why he 
 
68 IMASTERS OF MEN 
 
 is here to-day, to feel pleasure in your favor, and 
 fondly smile upon you. 
 
 The iconoclastic reasoner may escape a violent 
 death, but he deserves to linger on in a loveless, 
 smileless existence. For, with his logic, he would 
 rob us of the sweetest favor of the gods, humanity's 
 universal flag-of-truce — welcome index of needful, 
 though temporary, armistice in the never ending war- 
 fare of individuals. He would take away the en- 
 trancing mystery of the dearest, most delightful of 
 all life's delusions, — the smile of woman, — which, even 
 though we know that it is often a masked battery, 
 we would not do without. It can bless us or blight 
 us, but we are free agents with power of volition. 
 We may accept or reject, risk or run; and woman's 
 radiant smile, like other radiant energy, decreases 
 in force as the square of the distance. 
 
 Mabel Arthur had again smiled at Dick, and the 
 effect was revolutionary. In his hard masculine life 
 the affections had not been largely developed. A 
 warm and sincere friendship between himself and 
 Bronson had found expression only in an absence of 
 harsh words in their intercourse, a careless nod or 
 cheery joke at parting, and a hearty handshake when 
 they met again. Toward Bessie there had remained 
 a kindly feeling of gratitude, whicli had led him to 
 seek her — for further favors — on coming home. His 
 weak-natured aunt had never been able to impress 
 him strongly, and he stood now, as in his childhood, 
 nearly alone in the world. It was due, perhaps, to 
 this lack of diverting affections that the boyish ad- 
 miration and homage inspired by Mabel, as a school 
 miss, had grown latently, as he approached manhood, 
 into a feeling of intensity past his own power of 
 analysis. He was dimly conscious of its growtli and 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 69 
 
 grip on his soul when Bessie had teased him, and 
 later had awakened more fully to a conception of 
 its strength when he had seen his officer making for 
 her door. Yet his consequent ill-humor on this occa- 
 sion arose from a jealousy which he might have 
 classed with the feeling often aroused in him when 
 he had looked through a skylight at the ward-room 
 etinaer and had then gone forward to a salt-beef 
 ration. But the sight of her, standing at the window 
 in all her beauty of figure and face, — tlie startled 
 dark eyes shining with the tears of the moment before, 
 the crown of glossy hair, the tinted cheek and full 
 white throat, the graceful inclining of her head and 
 shoulders, and the tremulous, tentative parting of 
 her lips that ripened, as he looked, to a bewildering 
 smile of frank recognition, — aroused in the sailor a 
 knowledge of himself. 
 
 But the knowledge came with a shock, and his in- 
 voluntary attitude partook of the bitter defiance of 
 his last meeting with her. He had not seen the 
 change in her face which had prompted Mr. Breen 
 to a chivalrous defense of his ungraciousness, and he 
 went down the street with wildly beating heart and 
 trembling knee-joints, wrestling with the one phase 
 of the situation that he could grasp, — she had smiled 
 on him, and greeted him from the window of her 
 home. For the gentleman at her side — the commis- 
 sioned officer — he cared nothing at present. Mabel 
 had smiled on him, and by that smile had lifted him 
 higher in his self-estimation than would an appoint- 
 ment to Annapolis. 
 
 At the next corner he came to earth. He heard 
 distant yells over the house-tops, and the rousing 
 chorus of a sea song that he knew. But that which 
 had come to him prevented the words that would 
 
70 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 surely have arisen to his lips without it, and yet 
 accentuated the sickening disgust he now felt for the 
 crowd with which he was identified, and for the mis- 
 sion which had brought them to this peaceful town. 
 What would she think of him when it all came out? 
 Yet she herself had once asked him to fight, and 
 there was comfort in the thought. 
 
 He could not mix with that crowd now — not yet, 
 — so he doubled around the block and out acrc^^ the 
 ball-ground, glad to find it vacant, and sat down on 
 a rock at the side of the country road, where he 
 overhauled his soul, calling back the past, planning 
 the future, and often shutting his eyes to see again 
 the face at the window. His time in the navy would 
 expire in a few months ; he would be of age, he could 
 obtain the money that his mother had left him, and 
 meet Mabel Arthur by right as the social equal of 
 any ensign in the American navy. 
 
 Even a sailor in love, seasoned as he may be against 
 exposure and warmed by the glow in his breast, may 
 become chilled if he sits long on a cold rock, especially 
 if the uniform of the day is " blue without peacoats." 
 Yet the distant city-hall clock had struck seven and 
 the winter cold had reached his bones before he was 
 reminded that at six he was to meet the boys at the 
 station. 
 
 " Hope they knew enough to take the train," he 
 muttered as he pulled himself together and started 
 stiffly through the darkness. Under the first street 
 light he studied his time-table and found that the 
 next train for the city would pass through at 
 nine o'clock. " Plenty of time," he said ; " it's like 
 pulling teeth to shake hands with the old man ; but 
 Aunt Mollie wouldn't forgive me if I missed sce- 
 insT her." 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 71 
 
 He went down the street, past the schoolhouse, 
 and, a few blocks further, crossed over to enter the 
 street on which stood his uncle's house. But in the 
 middle of the street he stopped. He could look 
 straight down to the business section of the town, 
 brightly illuminated by the newly installed arc lights 
 overhead. Men were running about and an occa- 
 sional shout reached his ears. He turned, and hur- 
 ried on, for he could distinguish, here and there, 
 among the running men, the uniformed figure of a 
 shipmate. Two men coming toward him scurried 
 across the street when they saw him under a street 
 lamp, and Dick heard one say, " There's another of 
 'em." Both looked worse for wear. 
 
 He passed groups on the corners, and was stared 
 at and given room. Uncomplimentary remarks and 
 epithets came from crowded doorways, and a woman 
 screamed after him, " Why don't you git out o' this 
 town, you miserable rowdy.'' " Paying no attention, 
 he hurried on, passing the door of the police station 
 where three middle-aged men in shirt-sleeves and blue 
 trousers with thin white stripes were expostulating 
 with an older and grayer man in the uniform of a 
 police captain. On the next street, where stood the 
 Salvation Army barracks and brightly lighted the- 
 ater, was the center of excitement. Here he found 
 Casey in the middle of the street, swinging an agon- 
 ized pug dog around by its chain as a sailor would 
 heave the lead, calling out, " Watch, ho, watch," 
 with each revolution of the dog, and as the poor brute 
 landed, " By the mark ten," " A quarter nine," or 
 any mark or deep of the lead-line that came to his 
 mind. The mistress of the dog wept in a doorway, 
 and O'Toole, flourishing a locust club, was threaten- 
 ing Casey with mock arrest and dodging the dog. In 
 
72 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 front of the barracks were the others, doing their 
 best to break up an outdoor service of the Salva- 
 tionists. Billson, an expert bugler, had captured a 
 coniet, and Scanlon a drum. The street was crowded 
 with awestruck boys, and the sidewalks with well- 
 dressed, respectable folk, most of them bound for the 
 theater, and some of whom were laughing at the spec- 
 tacle ; but Morrisey, the tutelary genius of it all, was 
 not in evidence. 
 
 CHAPTER X^all 
 
 **¥_T ELL to pay and no pitch hot," growled Dick 
 
 Jn. as he faced Casey. " Drop it, Casey," he 
 said, " belay that. Let the dog go." 
 
 " Hooray," yelled Casey, obeying the order — the 
 dog landed near its owner — and throwing his arms 
 around Dick's neck. " Here he is. Where ye been, 
 mejewel.P Did they kill ye at all .'' " 
 
 " No sound, no ground, no bottom to be found, 
 with the long pitch-pine pike-pole. Daddy," howled 
 Shannon, vaulting between them on the end of a long 
 pole. " Can ye take soundin's on the Erie, Casey.'' 
 This way." He stabbed the pavement. " No sound, 
 no ground — hello, Dick. Here's Dick." 
 
 They seized Dick by the shoulders and pushed 
 him, unresisting, over toward the others, while 
 O'Toole prodded them with the club. 
 
 " Stop this," he yelled, shaking himself free. 
 " Stop it, or you'll get the worst of it. Come on, 
 now, down to the station — all of you." They paid 
 no attention. Dick retreated to the sidewalk and 
 a dignified old gentleman tapped him on the shoulder. 
 He knew him. It was Mr. Arthur — Mabel's father. 
 
 " You appear to be sober, young man," he said. 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 73 
 
 " If you can control those fellows and induce them 
 to leave town, do so ; if not, as mayor of the town, 
 I shall call out the firemen. They can attend to 
 them if the police cannot." 
 
 " Excuse me, sir," answered Dick in some embar- 
 rassment — for the halo of Mabel's divinity hung over 
 her father ; " but if you do, there will only be some 
 heads to mend. I can't control them now — not yet. 
 They're three-sheets-in-the-wind and wouldn't take 
 orders from an admiral. But wait a little and I'll 
 get them away." 
 
 " Chief," called the old gentleman to the gray- 
 haired police captain, who stood in the crowd, " call 
 out all the companies and send the foremen to me." 
 
 Three minutes later, with a clanging of bells and 
 scattering of boys, two engines, two hose-carts, and 
 two hook-and-ladder trucks clattered up to the 
 corner from different directions, and Dick, expostu- 
 lating with his shipmates, who were now forming 
 for parade, observed two six-foot foremen, in fire 
 helmets and waterproof coats, hastening toward the 
 mayor. He also joined him. 
 
 " Now look here, sir," he said, excitedly ; " there's 
 no use in this. They'll resent dictation and some 
 one will get hurt if you use force with them. I can 
 keep them from doing any harm. Leave it to me, 
 and I'll march them to the s-ation." 
 
 The mayor regarded him seriously, as though dis- 
 posed to believe him ; but another man, pushing 
 through the crowd, interrupted him just as he was 
 about to speak. 
 
 "What's up, Mr. Arthur.?" he asked. "Want 
 to sprinkle 'em ? " 
 
 " Why, yes, Jenkins, I had thought of it — or else, 
 throwing them out of town by force. I called your 
 
74 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 men, but as chief you are entitled to direct. This 
 young man advises delay — thinks he can manage 
 them." 
 
 *' Manage nothing," answered the other, regarding 
 Dick contemptuously. " I'll give 'em a bath for the 
 fun of it, and drive 'em afterward." 
 
 " Suit yourself, Jenkins." 
 
 " All right," said Dick, angrily. " You'll be sorry 
 for it, I promise you. I'll stand by my mates." 
 
 He hurried to them where they were regarding with 
 mild interest the preparations for their undoing. 
 They seemed to have forgotten their idea of parade. 
 
 " Break — scatter — clear out," yelled Dick ; 
 " they're going to turn the water on you." 
 
 " Going to what.'* " they answered in chorus. " Go- 
 ing to turn water on us? Are we afire? Going to 
 wash us? Why not holystone us? Billson, shut off 
 steam, there; silence that fog-horn o' yours. Scan- 
 Ion, beat to quarters ! Repel boarders ! All hands 
 repel boarders ! Keegan, belay. Stand by for a 
 rakin' fire from forrard." 
 
 Even as they declaimed the two companies were 
 rushing their engines and hose-carts in opposite direc- 
 tions to the hydrants at the next corners, the carts 
 paying out hose as they went. The hook-and-ladder 
 men remained by their trucks. Two pipe-men at each 
 hose coupled on the heavy brass nozzles, waited until 
 the engines whistled, and sang out in answer. Men 
 passed the word along the two lines and water came 
 — a deluge of it, in two solid streams, which struck 
 the procrastinating blue- jackets and knocked most of 
 them down, while the crowd cheered. 
 
 Although a wetting has little effect on the health 
 of a sailor, it invariably adds to his discomfort and 
 combativencss. They arose, much soberer than when 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 75 
 
 they fell, charged on the nearest nozzle and wresteH 
 it from the firemen, who fled, followed by the stream, 
 which, first circling overhead, generously soaked the 
 spectators on the sidewalk. Leaving two in charge 
 of the first nozzle, they charged on and captured the 
 second, the pipe-men speeding out of range like the 
 others. Then, while the firemen, who had so far re- 
 garded the matter as an enjoyable frolic, were 
 reorganizing with their oncoming reinforcements, — 
 which included the three policemen, — the two streams 
 were turned on the spectators, changing their derisive 
 laughter to cries of anger, and practically washing 
 the street clear of them. 
 
 But the firemen, dead in earnest now, were coming 
 back, nearly two dozen strong, armed with spanners, 
 hooks, fire-axes, spare nozzles, and trumpets. They 
 had thrown off their cumbersome water-proof coats, 
 and, drenched to the skin, advanced inch by inch 
 against the two streams which the yelling sailors held 
 at their breasts. Then they deployed to the right 
 and left, flanked and disconcerted the moist battery, 
 and advanced more rapidly to what promised to be 
 a bloody conflict, disastrous for the sailors. To add 
 to this promise, there were, coming back from the 
 rear, wet and angry citizens, who had secured sticks 
 and clubs ranging in size from canes to cart-stakes ; 
 but, in fact, only one serious conflict occurred. 
 
 It was between a sailor and two big hook-and- 
 ladder men, who had advanced with fire-hooks, the 
 long points and barbs of which make them as wicked 
 weapons as boarding-pikes, but which, to their credit, 
 they used as clubs. The curriculum of navy-drill 
 provided for this warfare, and a well-trained blue- 
 jacket with a club in his hands has the same advan- 
 tage that a skilled fencer has with the sword. Un- 
 
76 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 touched by the lunging strokes of his opponents, the 
 sailor whirled his light, hardwood foil, — a con- 
 demned billiard cue, — punched, parried, and cut with 
 it, but little by little was forced backward, away 
 from his friends and into the crowd of indignant 
 townspeople. 
 
 He would not have fought thus unequally had not 
 his shipmates been interfered with. At the beginning 
 of it, three men had run along the wet sidewalk, 
 turned into the street, and hastened past the fighters 
 toward the groups at the nozzles, as the place of 
 most ominous trouble. Two were the mayor and chief 
 of the fire department. They waved and ordered the 
 firemen back, and the other, a young and well-dressed 
 man, sprang among the sailors, shouting: — 
 
 " Stop this, men. Stop it at once. I am an officer. 
 Lower those nozzles — down to the ground. Stand on 
 them. Instantly. Do you hear me? Turn off your 
 water, gentlemen," he called to the others ; " my side 
 will obey." 
 
 They had obeyed him. Some recognized Mr. 
 Breen, and all knew the unmistakable accent of an 
 officer accustomed to authority. They saluted and 
 answered respectfully. Shouts were passed around 
 the comers, and soon the water ceased to flow. " Fall 
 in over here at the curb," ordered Mr. Breen, sternly, 
 " and give an account of j^ourselves." 
 
 "Can't we help Halpin, sir.?" asked Casey, anx- 
 iously, as he fitted tlie grommct to his cap. " He's 
 gittin' killed over yonder." 
 
 Mr. Breen turned and looked, just in time to see 
 the fighting sailor struck on the forehead with a heavy 
 stone flung from across the street. Fh)urishing the 
 half of his broken stick, he staggered and foil. The 
 officer hurried over, followed by the sailors, but before 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 77 
 
 they reached the prostrate figure Mabel Arthur was 
 bending over it. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 **"[\/r ABEL— Miss Arthur," said the officer, 
 1 ▼ i gently, as he touched her arm ; " here is 
 your father." 
 
 Mr. Arthur almost dragged her to her feet and 
 back through the crowd, scolding her in a most 
 shocked and fatherly manner. 
 
 " Why are you here ? Going to the theater with 
 Mr. Breen? Um-humph. Might better have remained 
 at home on this occasion, with the streets full of 
 rioters. I haven't dared go to dinner." 
 
 " But, father," she stammered, " it is the boy — 
 Dick Halpin ; you know — you remember. The boy 
 who went away, and — oh, father, come back. I want 
 to be sure that he is not seriously injured." 
 
 Her father humored her, and the crowd parted 
 for them to make their way back. Dick was hurt, 
 but not seriously. He was on his feet, shaking his 
 head in quick jerks to prevent the blood from running 
 into his eyes. Wet, muddy, and bleeding, with his 
 long hair disheveled and his face contracted in pain, 
 he was not an agreeable sight, and ]Mabel shuddered. 
 He was facing partly away and could not see her. 
 Mr. Breen held him by one arm and Shannon by the 
 other, not to support, but to curb him; for he was 
 muttering to himself and was not yet responsible. 
 
 " It was a stone, neighbor," said one of the fire- 
 men to him, " not us. We couldn't touch you. I'm 
 sorry now, old man, and here's my hand on it. I 
 know a good man when I see him. We don't throw 
 stones — not us." 
 
78 IMASTERS OF MEN 
 
 "Who was it?" asked Dick, weakly. "Who hit 
 me?" 
 
 " Never mind who it was, Halpin," said Mr. Breen, 
 sternly. " You have disgraced yourself and the 
 service enough as it is." 
 
 They faced him the other way, and Dick saw 
 Mabel — saw her turn from him with an expression 
 in her face which somewhat resembled the look of 
 terror and horror it had held on that last day in 
 school. 
 
 " Fall in here, men," called Mr. Breen. " Double 
 column with Halpin between you. Webster, I know 
 you; take my place. I hold you and Shannon re- 
 sponsible for his safe delivery on board the Vermont. 
 Halpin, you are under arrest. Make way there, 
 please. Forward — march." 
 
 With Shannon and Webster holding him tightly, 
 and his bodyguard changed to a guard of arrest, Dick 
 was marched through the streets toward the station. 
 But Shannon and Webster need not have held him. 
 He was tractable and harmless, for the transient 
 light of Mabel Arthur's smile had gone from his soul. 
 
 The ensign hastened after, and the crowd grad- 
 ually dispersed, except for a small contingent that 
 jeered the sailors on their way. On the station plat- 
 form, where Mr. Breen halted them to wait for the 
 train, Morrisey appeared, with his silk hat on an 
 even keel — sober-faced and anxious in manner. 
 
 " I know ye're an officer, sir," he said to the en- 
 sign, saluting him in the way tliat onl}' man-of-war's 
 men acquire. " I'm Tim Morrisey, late quarter- 
 master of the Kearsargc, and I want to say a word 
 for the boys, and Dick there. Dick's a good lad, as 
 ye must know, sir, and all he wanted was to do up 
 the gang o' school bullies that killed him once, and 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 79 
 
 he brought his mates to help him. But he didn't get 
 'era fulh I did that, not knowin' how far they'd go; 
 but Dick's innocent of it. Why, ye can see, sir, that 
 Dick hasn't been drinkin'. Plase be aisy on 'em, sir. 
 Now, will ye sind Dick over to my hotel under guard, 
 sir, and I'll clane him up, so he can go aboard pre- 
 sintable like, and not fall foul o' the master-at- 
 arms ? " 
 
 During part of this discourse Mr. Breen had been 
 coHapelled to smile, which had encouraged Morrisey 
 to continue. 
 
 " I will consider your protest," he answered ; " that 
 is all I can say." 
 
 Morrisey drew over toward the boys, not to talk, — 
 he knew better, — but to encourage them by his pres- 
 ence and sympathy. They were quiet and sober now, 
 and stood shivering in their wet clothing. Dick, 
 smeared with blood, was seated on a bench with his 
 chin in his hand and eyes on the platform. 
 
 " Webster — Shannon," said Mr. Breen, " take 
 Halpin over with this man and attend to his wants. 
 Halpin, will you go on board to-night if I give you 
 your liberty ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Dick, rising to his feet and 
 saluting. 
 
 " And the rest of you. Do you all belong to the 
 receiving-ship ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," they answered ; " all of us — we'll go 
 aboard, sir — we want dry clothes." 
 
 " Very well, go along. You need not report to 
 the executive officer, Halpin. I will attend to your 
 case myself when I come on board." 
 
 " Thank ye, sir," said Morrisey ; " I consider this 
 a personal favor, sir." 
 
 Mr. Breen went back to spend the evening at the 
 
80 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 Arthurs'. He had managed his share of the proceed- 
 ings without getting wet, and was still a well- 
 groomed, presentable young man. 
 
 Next morning the baker's dozen of sailors intro- 
 duced themselves to the Verm(ynt\<i surgeon in the 
 sick-bay, all suffering from splitting headaches. 
 But Dick's headache was hardest to cure, for he had 
 barely escaped brain concussion. Truly, thirteen is 
 an unlucky number. 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 ONLY by friction with his fellows and by the de- 
 velopment within him of instincts based upon 
 ancestral experience does man acquire a conscience. 
 Continuing on from the embryonic reproduction of 
 organic change of the lower to the higher types, the 
 young of the human species takes up at birth the 
 progress of the ape-like men, and — in the case of the 
 male — lives through every chapter of human history. 
 The small boy in his primal impulses is as savage as 
 his prototype of the jungle. He is afraid of the 
 dark, he is afraid of the storm, and whimpers at the 
 sound of thunder. In this, of course, he is worthy of 
 pity and comforting words ; but, when he has con- 
 quered his cowardice to the point where he dares 
 pounce upon a weaker creature, he will torture it 
 mercilessly. His occasional combats with his follows 
 are always short — a few blows are given, and one 
 flees, pursued by tlie other, courageous because con- 
 fident. But should the vanquished, with blind rage 
 serving for courage, return to battle, the flight will 
 be reversed. 
 
 Epitomizing as he docs the infancy of the race, a 
 boy's attitude toward the world is antagonistic. Yet 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 81 
 
 there are times during his passage through the 
 Neolithic Period when he would rather beat you at 
 marbles than frighten you with a pistol. Later on 
 he prefers the latter. Then there are times when 
 nothing suits him but a bow and arrow, — times when 
 he will hide for days in a cave which he has found or 
 dug for himself like his cave-dwelling ancestry, when 
 he will practice strenuously at hatchet-throwing, 
 knife-throwing, spear-throwing, and is joyful of soul 
 when he can break a window with a stone from his 
 sling. Banded with others he will often cruelly mal- 
 treat a weaker boy — a captive — from another neigh- 
 borhood, and his hunting games — survivals of the 
 chase — sometimes end fatally to the losers. He is a 
 robber for the love of the sport. But in time — 
 somewhere between the ages of fifteen and twenty- 
 one — these primitive attributes, under the influence 
 of punishment, reward, and good example, may be 
 civilized out of him, and he becomes fit for acquaint- 
 anceship. But he never ceases to lie. 
 
 The development of the girl differs slightly from 
 that of the boy. Very early — perhaps in the prenatal 
 life — she loses the killing impulse, and only resumes 
 it under later stress of jealousy or motherhood. 
 Leaving her Paleolithic brother to work out his own 
 salvation in his own way, the baby girl leaps at once 
 into the pseudo-civilization of the Middle Ages, 
 with its emotionalism, its enthusiasm, and its super- 
 naturalism — which existed in women before the 
 Middle Ages were dreamt of. She is a monitor and 
 a preacher from promptings within herself, and 
 when she has learned to talk she tells her small 
 brother what he should and should not do — not be- 
 cause she knows, but because she feels. She remains 
 in the Middle Ages while she lives, a preacher, a 
 
82 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 monitor, a dictator. She is often no more than a 
 nagging scold, but on the whole her life is cleaner, 
 brighter, and more moral than that of her brother. 
 Once past the sugar-bowl period, her pilfering pro- 
 pensities are easily dropped — or suppressed until 
 poverty or kleptomania brings them to the surface; 
 but her cowardice, nourished and conserved by phys- 
 ical weakness, often remains with her to the end, and 
 in mendacity, compelled by the restrictions placed 
 upon her by society, she outclasses her brother. A 
 man is by nature a liar from the cradle to the grave. 
 A woman is more — she is an actress. 
 
 And this brings us to the object of this analysis. 
 We know that Dick Halpin has painfully struggled 
 from the Age of Stone into the Age of Iron. We 
 must also know that Bessie Fleming — sweet, and 
 wholesome, and lovable — is a fibber. As to Mabel 
 Arthur, we can only infer; the evidence is not 
 clear. 
 
 On the following Sunday the two girls, each suita- 
 bly arrayed, went to church, and when the service 
 was over, met in the vestibule. After kisses and com- 
 pliments they went out together, and Bessie said 
 effusively : — ■ 
 
 " But where have you kept yourself, dear. Why, 
 I haven't seen you since before the riot. Wasn't it 
 dreadful.?" 
 
 "Wasn't it.'' I have been ill all the week." an- 
 swered Mabel. " I only got out to-day." 
 
 "Weren't they horrid.? They almost killed poor 
 Dicky; they swung him around by his chain and he 
 hasn't been himself at all since then. And, do you 
 know, it was Dick Halpin — our Dick, for wliom we 
 named him — who rescued Dicky. Wasn't it nice? 
 Such a coincidence, too." 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 83 
 
 "Did he? I understood that he was the ring- 
 leader — the master spirit." 
 
 " Not at all, Mabel. You know I always stood 
 up for Dick, and always will. He was quelling the 
 riot all the time." 
 
 " I thought Mr. Breen did that — he, and father, 
 and the firemen." 
 
 " But Dick was first. I was standing in a door- 
 way — I got dreadfully wet — and saw it all. I saw 
 you, Mabel. Did you see Dick? Isn't he big, and 
 strong, and handsome? " 
 
 " Handsome? " murmured Mabel, with a sweet and 
 pleasant drawl in her voice ; " I don't know. I did 
 not observe him closely; but I think that Mr. Breen 
 is rather nice looking." 
 
 "Do 3'ou? Now, I think Dick is much hand- 
 somer. I suppose you heard how he thrashed those 
 boys who treated him so cruelly." 
 
 " I did hear something ; but, you know, I am not 
 greatly interested in his exploits." 
 
 " No? But he did, Mabel — all but one, who ran 
 away. Anna was there and saw it all. Wasn't it 
 poetic justice — that he should come back so big, and 
 brave, and strong? And he was so small and helpless 
 when they ill-treated him. You know how I felt. I 
 believe I was the only friend he had in the whole 
 world." 
 
 " Well, I felt at the time, and feel still, that I had 
 done my duty when I exonerated him. George was 
 only a foolish boy, you know. Of course, I can 
 understand that it is different with you. Mr. Breen 
 said — you know he called that day and spent the 
 evening with us — well, Mr. Breen said he was a 
 notorious fighter, always in trouble." 
 
 Bessie's small hand opened spasmodically, much 
 
84 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 as a cat shows her claws ; but it was gloved, and 
 Mabel smiled, sweetly and fearlessly. 
 
 " Did he really call on you, Mabel? " asked Bessie. 
 " How nice ; he called at our house, too ; but Dick 
 was there and he went away — he went right away. 
 I was surprised. And so he called on you.'' " 
 
 " He had something to say to me," replied 
 Mabel, dreamily, " I suppose that he called to say 
 
 It. 
 
 Bessie's face paled a little, and her eyes opened 
 wide, but she made no direct inquiry as to what 
 Mr. Brcen had to say. After a moment's silence 
 she said: — 
 
 " I don't think that Mr. Breen is at all reliable. 
 I think he is very much of a flirt — so insincere and 
 inconsistent. Dick is different. I received a lovely 
 letter from him last evening. Shall I show it to you, 
 Mabel? " 
 
 She drew forth a letter which Mabel took, lan- 
 guidly, and experiencing a little difficulty in reaching 
 in between the edges of the envelope, removed her 
 left glove. She was not left-handed, but by remov- 
 ing her right glove she could not have displayed a 
 large diamond on the third finger of her left hand. 
 
 " Oh, Mabel," exclaimed Bessie, as she seized the 
 hand, " isn't it beautiful? " Her cheek was whiter 
 and her lips twitched. 
 
 "Yes, isn't it?" responded Mabel, as she pressed 
 the gem to her lips. " It came last evening, like your 
 letter, from New York. Let's see what your gladi- 
 ator says. 
 
 " ' My dear friend Bessie,' she read — " he writes 
 a good hand, doesn't he, Bessie, for a common sailor 
 — ' I\Iy dear friend Bessie, you have probably formed 
 an estimate of my general character that no apology 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 85 
 
 from me will change. Yet it is due myself as well 
 as you to offer one. I am sincerely sorry for my 
 conduct, and ask your pardon. It must have seemed 
 unqualified rowdyism to you. I know that I have no 
 reputation in Allville to be proud of, but I did, and 
 would again, value your good opinion. Yours truly, 
 Richard Halpin.' 
 
 " Quite an apology," said Mabel, as she handed 
 the letter back ; " but why should he apologize to 
 you, Bessie? Did he — did he hit you? " 
 
 " Why, Mabel — the idea. He thought, I suppose, 
 that I should blame him for poor Dicky's suffering ; 
 and then, too, I was his only friend." 
 
 " And I suppose you will answer? " 
 
 " Most certainly." 
 
 " Well, Bessie, when your Dick buys the ring he 
 must induce Mr. Breen to select it. Mr. Breen is 
 certainly a judge." Mabel fingered the brilliant, 
 and looked lovingly and proudly at it. 
 
 " If it should come to that, Mabel," answered 
 Bessie, somewhat incoherently, " I think he could 
 choose for himself. There are mother and Anna — 
 beckoning," she continued, brokenly. " I must leave 
 you, Mabel; and do come around." 
 
 " Yes, and do come yourself. I've so many things 
 to tell you. Good-by, dear." 
 
 "Good-by, Mabel." 
 
 They kissed and parted on the corner around 
 which Dick had stalked his ofBcer, Mabel going back 
 to her home with lips tightly pressed, and Bessie 
 joining her mother and sister with a look on her face 
 that brought anxious inquiries as to her health. 
 Neither girl called on the other, and when they met 
 again, they kissed, talked commonplaces, and parted 
 without kissing. When next they met the kiss was 
 
86 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 omitted, and the conversation short. Next time, 
 Bessie was looking at a show-window as Mabel came 
 abreast, and on the next occasion this happened to 
 Mabel. Finally, they passed with stately and silent 
 salutes. 
 
 From a masculine point of view it was certainly 
 wrong for Bessie to give a false coloring to Dick's 
 ambiguous apology; but she was a woman; and 
 women have their own code of honor, which we must 
 not question. 
 
 Instead of writing candidly to Mr. Breen explain- 
 ing Dick's position, as masculine ethics would have 
 prompted, Bessie wrote to Dick, and not being sure 
 of his abiding-place, sent the letter in care of Mr. 
 Breen. The ensign received it, studied the super- 
 scription and postmark, swore softl}', and sent it by 
 a messenger-boy to Dick, who, with a sunburst of 
 court-plaster on his brow and dismal gloom in his 
 soul, read it in the light of a bow port. 
 
 It was an angry letter, telling of the diamond 
 ring, and defining Dick's position very clearly; but 
 as it contained confessions wrung from her maidenly 
 heart, it will not be given here. If Bessie, prompted 
 by the inscrutable feminine code, had hoped that 
 Dick Avould show it, or hint as to its tenor, to Mr. 
 Breen, the letter failed of its mark ; for Dick under- 
 stood none but the masculine code. 
 
 But the enclosed clipping from the AllviUe Times 
 was certainly meant for Dick's own reading. It ran 
 as follows : — 
 
 "Yesterday afternoon a gang of drunken sailors came to our 
 peaceful town, and after a noisy orgie in the wliisky hole run 
 by Timothy Morrisej-, began the task of ' painting the town.' 
 Thanks to the well-known inefficiency of the police force, they 
 almost succeeded. Their first assault was directed at the gradu- 
 ating class of the high school, as a result of which several 
 of its members are now ill in bed from the severity of their 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 87 
 
 injuries. The commencement exercises will probably be post- 
 poned. It seems that the ringleader and chief rowdy of the 
 gang is one Richard Halpin, a former member of this class, 
 who was expelled from school four years ago for stealing. He 
 then ran away from home, and now, it seems, returns to wreak 
 his spite upon his innocent and unoffending classmates, and 
 bring added disgrace upon himself — if that were possible — and 
 on the honored name which he wears, before the grass has 
 sprouted on the graves of his loving guardians, whose hearts 
 he broke and whose deaths he hastened by his villainy. 
 
 " After their attack on the school the drunken horde, first 
 overcoming our police, raved through the streets, smashing 
 windows and maltreating citizens; then the fire department 
 was called out by the mayor. Our brave firemen would cer- 
 tainly have overcome the rioters but that the appearance of 
 Ensign Breen of the navy, a guest of our mayor, rendered 
 action unnecessary. Mr. Breen marched the crowd down to 
 the station with the rufiian Halpin under arrest. Mr. Breen 
 deserves the thanks of the community for his firmness and 
 courage, and it is to be hoped that the fellow Halpin will be 
 severely dealt with on shipboard; but, with the expected reor- 
 ganization of our police force, we can confidently predict that 
 should he set foot in our town again his reception will be 
 warm. 
 
 " Efforts are being made toward the rescinding of Morrisey's 
 license, as the place has too long disgraced the town." 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 ON board the Vermont there were twelve distinct 
 and conflicting accounts of the " hurrah " at 
 Allville given to the ship's company ; but Dick, from 
 whom most was expected, had nothing to say nor 
 would he express any interest in Kerrigan's report, 
 reluctantly given, that Devlin and himself had been 
 unable to catch the long-legged Ned Brown. He was 
 a changed young man, and in a very bad way. Not 
 even the proud approval and warm congratulations 
 of Bronson could lift him from the mood that had 
 engulfed him. He despised himself. He had seen 
 glimpses of a life in which he could take no part. 
 He was mentally benumbed, and Bessie's angry letter, 
 with its news of his aunt's and uncle's death, affected 
 
88 IMASTERS OF MEN 
 
 him much less than it could have before his trip. Nor 
 did Mr. Breen's later attitude help him. There had 
 been no summons to the mast, but the ensign had 
 sent for Dick, and with constrained manner and 
 averted eyes told him that, having learned of cer- 
 tain events of his school-days, connected with his 
 recent conduct, he had decided to make no report to 
 the executive officer. It was right, he said, that Dick 
 should know to whom he was indebted. He could 
 thank Miss Arthur. He could go forward. 
 
 And Dick had sullenly thanked the officer, and had 
 gone forward, trying to hate MabeL But it was 
 impossible, in spite of what seemed to him to be the 
 nature of her intercession — even though she must 
 have told of his disgrace at school. For what else 
 would have so turned Mr. Brcen against him.-^ 
 
 Gradually, however, Dick came back to something 
 like his old genial self, yet could not, by the time 
 he lined up on the Cob-dock with lashed bag and 
 hammock, — one of a draft for the Neio York, — look 
 on Mr. Breen without silent malediction. 
 
 Strong to his resolve to quit the navy when his 
 time expired, he, with others of the draft, had en- 
 tered early protest against being sent to a foreign 
 station. The protest, usually considered, was ig- 
 nored, possibly from an inward knowledge among the 
 officers that the New York might remain on the 
 coast ; but tl)is reason was not given to the men, and 
 there was bitter talk of desertion before the ship 
 sailed. Dick, laying this additional grievance at the 
 door of Mr. Breen, who had promised to have him 
 selected from good-will, and had now done it from 
 ill-will, seriously thought of it himself. 
 
 A few happenings strengthened his half-formed 
 resolution. The Nexo York, a two-masted, three- 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 89 
 
 funneled armored cruiser, was taking in the coal dis- 
 charged before docking. As her bunkers held over 
 twelve hundred tons, it was a long, distasteful job 
 for the men, and nothing else being required of them 
 until the carpenters, calkers, and machinists had fin- 
 ished repairs, the off -watch was alloAved daily liberty. 
 Fate and Dick's captain-of-division had decreed that 
 he should take his place one morning in the lighter 
 alongside to shovel coal into canvas bags, and hook 
 on the davit whip by which they were hoisted up to 
 the shutes. It was a dirty and dusty job, and, along 
 near noon and knocking-off time, just when he was 
 as dirty, dusty, and black as he could be, he looked 
 up from a filled bag to see Mabel Arthur gazing down 
 on him from the after part of the superstructure- 
 deck. Beside her was Mr. Breen, pointing at him, 
 and farther along were her father and brother in- 
 specting a searchlight. There was little reason to 
 suppose that they could know one grimy shoveler 
 from another at that distance, or that Mabel would 
 have recognized lier own brother so disguised, but 
 Dick looked downward with cheeks burning under the 
 dirt. He had been pointed at, and he felt his humilia- 
 tion to the full. He shoveled energetically for a 
 while, and when forced to straighten his aching back, 
 he looked, not aft, but forward, and there she was, 
 staring down on him from the forward bridge, while 
 Mr. Breen, amidships, was pointing up at the fight- 
 ing-tops, seemingly explaining things to Mr. Arthur 
 and George. Dick hung his head again, and worked, 
 perspiring. He had little false pride, and coaling 
 ship was a necessary evil, but he should have liked 
 to be cleaner when she looked at him — not laboring 
 like a longshoreman at the most unsailorly work in 
 the navy. Having climbed into a port to avoid meet- 
 
90 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 ing her, he met her again on the lower deck, forward 
 of the engine-room skylight, where the visitors and 
 Mr. Breen were picking their way aft over scattered 
 lumps of coal, 
 
 " Here," cried the officer, sharply, " get a broom 
 — there's one — sweep this gangway clear. Lively 
 now! " 
 
 He spoke to Dick, but neither he nor the gentle- 
 men seemed to know him : though Mabel certainly 
 did, as was evidenced by the fixity of her gaze over 
 his head while he swept coal out of her way, and 
 by the sweetness of the smile she gave the next grimy 
 tar — it was Casey — who kicked a sleeping pig, the 
 ship's mascot, from her path. 
 
 Raging inwardly, Dick finished the task, flung the 
 broom from him, cleaned up, and ate his dinner. He 
 kept out of sight until two o'clock, when a boat- 
 swain's-mate piped the liberty crowd to the quarter- 
 deck; and here, standing in line — sweet and clean, 
 and good-looking — he stared defiantly into her eyes 
 as she watched the men told off. But he could not 
 keep it up; she joined him in the stare; his eyes 
 shifted and came back, — she was still gazing at him, 
 — and they sought the deck. He looked again, with 
 the defiance gone, and in place of it, the dumb, plead- 
 ing look of a spaniel. Then her own eyes dropped, 
 a blush came to her face, and she looked at him no 
 more. She was not conquered in the battle of eyes ; 
 she had merely searched well, and learned what she 
 had not known. 
 
 On the dock Dick gave his name to the cadet in 
 charge of the squad, and obtained permission to visit 
 the Vermont before going out of the yard. He saw 
 Bronson and had a storm}' quarter of an hour with 
 him, at the end of which the latter said gravely, 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 91 
 
 *' And I hoped to see you a warrant officer, but you 
 won't have it ; so, go — go along, and good luck to you, 
 Dick." 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 FATHER, daughter, and brother left the New 
 York, with Mr. Breen in civilian's clothing and 
 carrying a heavy satchel. The ship lay on the in- 
 shore side of the Cob-dock, just around the comer 
 from the Vermont, and a straight sidewalk led from 
 her gang-plank to the landing of the ferry-scow, a 
 cabined craft which pulled itself by means of a winch- 
 engine back and forth on a stationary chain. Dick 
 Halpin hurried down another walk which led from 
 the Vermont, and boarded the scow just ahead of 
 them. When they entered and sat down amidships 
 he was seated in a forward corner, with his baclc 
 turned squarely toward them ; but his cap was slued 
 on his head, and the name of his ship on the ribbon 
 was readable. 
 
 " There's one of your men, forward," said George, 
 as Mr. Breen, with a sigh of relief, deposited the 
 satchel on the deck. The officer glanced, nodded, 
 and sat down beside Mabel. Other passengers — 
 sailors, marines, and workmen — crowded in, and Dick 
 was nearly hidden from view. 
 
 *' Does he have to shovel coal.-^ " asked Mabel in 
 a low voice. " Is that his duty.? " 
 
 " Who do you mean ? " 
 
 She leaned forward, looked at Dick's broad back, 
 and said, " Dick Halpin." 
 
 " Why, yes — coaling ship — in his turn — unless he 
 gets a rating. But he hasn't had time for that. 
 Was he shoveling? " 
 
 y 
 
92 ]VL\STERS OF MEN 
 
 " Didn't you see him? You pointed right at him 
 — down in the boat. He saw us. He must have 
 thought we were talking about him." 
 
 " Didn't see him at all." 
 
 " You ordered him to sweep the floor for us — 
 down cellar. Do you alw^ays speak to him like 
 that.?" 
 
 " Was that Halpin ? " asked the ensign, with a 
 smile. " They're all alike, sometimes. Certainly. 
 We can't take time to request them to do anything. 
 We tell them to." 
 
 She was silent; the noise of the chain going over 
 the winch made conversation difficult, and when the 
 scow reached the landing they all arose and crowded 
 forward to step ashore. " Here, my lad," said Mr. 
 Breen, briskly, tapping Dick on the shoulder. " Go- 
 ing out? Carry this grip for me to the gate — eh — 
 Halpin." 
 
 Dick turned with a flush on his face that was 
 almost black; but he touched his cap and took the 
 bag. George smiled cheerfully, but Mr. Breen 
 seemed disturbed and embarrassed. He stepped after 
 Dick with a hand half extended for the burden, but 
 it was too late; he was on the landing-float, and 
 before the ensign reached it, was swinging up the 
 walk as though anxious to escape from them. Mr. 
 Breen paused and looked at Mabel's face; but she 
 averted her eyes as she took her father's arm, and lie 
 walked to the gate beside her brother. Outside, Dick 
 was waiting. No doubt his training was strong 
 upon him, yet there was a suggestion in the way 
 he was swinging the bag of a desii'e to hurl it from 
 him, as he had once thrown his school books. Mr. 
 Breen approached and relieved him. 
 
 " I didn't know you, Halpin," he said. " Believe 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 9S 
 
 me, I had no wish to work you or humiliate you before 
 people you knew." 
 
 The unforgiving Dick turned a sullen face away 
 from him, then back. 
 
 " Wouldn't you like, sir," he said in a voice which, 
 though high-pitched and trembling, was but little 
 louder than the purr of a cat, " that I should polish 
 your shoes.'* There's still time — while I wear this 
 rig." 
 
 " Halpin, you are insolent." 
 
 "Am I, sir? Perhaps. I happen to be a free- 
 born American in temporary servitude. Not for 
 long, however, though I may finish my time in the 
 brig. Let me suggest, Mr. Breen, tact and wisdom 
 on your part when we meet after that." 
 
 He swung on his heel and strode down the street 
 toward the Brooklyn Bridge. Mr. Breen, biting his 
 lip, returned to his friends, and they boarded the 
 first car that came along, which, being delayed, 
 did not make good time ; so, they mounted the steps 
 to the platform just ahead of Dick, who had walked 
 the distance, and as they seated themselves, Mabel 
 looked at the ensign with an expression that he did 
 not understand, but which brought him to her side. 
 
 " Your friend has given warning," he said, with 
 a troubled look at her. " Going to skip, I judge." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " Desert." 
 
 " Don't they hang them, or shoot them for that? *' 
 
 " Not in time of peace. A man is no good if 
 he doesn't want to stay ; so we seldom look for 
 them. The worst that could happen is a couple of 
 years in the Charlestown naval prison. But it's too 
 bad. He's a good man." 
 
 " Good. Yes, good to put in coal, and sweep, 
 
94 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 and carry things, and be spoken to as you could not 
 safely speak to a servant," she answered, quickly. 
 " But he must not. It's so disgraceful." 
 
 While the officer was contriving a safe answer to 
 her puzzling comparisons, she arose with resolution 
 in her eyes; then, while he held up a deprecatory 
 hand to Mr. Arthur, who was about to speak, she 
 marched out and through the train to where Dick 
 sat alone in the rear car, looking out on the river 
 and shipping. 
 
 " Mr. Halpin," she said, as she took the seat be- 
 side him. 
 
 He turned and the anger left his face. Reaching 
 up awkwardly, he got his cap off and held it in his 
 lap, while he stammered : " Miss Arthur. I didn't — 
 how do you do ? " 
 
 " Mr. Breen has just told me that you mean to 
 leave the navy — to desert." 
 
 " Yes. I've had enough of it." 
 "But you know the consequences? It will ruin 
 you." 
 
 " It's hard to ruin a foremast hand, Miss 
 Arthur." 
 
 " But the disgrace — think of it. Please do not." 
 He was silent, and his hand shook as he gripped 
 his cap. 
 
 " You know," she went on, " I was in a way 
 connected with your leaving school and home, and 
 I've always wanted to tell you how sorry and 
 ashamed I was, but you never came back; and you 
 cannot wonder that I want to see you succeed." 
 
 *' There's no success in the navy," he answered, 
 doggedly. " The laws forbid it. After years of 
 service and hard study, I might become a boatswain 
 or a gunner, and there I'd stop. And I hate the 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 95 
 
 life. No, Miss Arthur, I'll succeed, I promise you 
 that. I'll meet him yet as an equal." 
 
 "Who.?" 
 
 " Mr. Breen; but I've no chance in the same ship 
 with him. He's got his knife into me now.'* 
 
 "Does he bully you.'' Oh, I noticed — I was so 
 sorry. Promise me, please, that you Viill not desert. 
 For my sake — " 
 
 " I did something once for your sake," he an- 
 swered, insanely, " and got the worst of it all around. 
 Here's one result. After four years' service I may 
 be body-servant — a bag carrier — to the man you 
 are to marry." 
 
 She started up, with two very red cheeks, and 
 left him. At the door she halted and turned as 
 though she would have come back, but he was staring 
 sullenly across the car, and the train was entering 
 the New York terminal. So she joined the others. 
 
 " I can do nothing with him," she said to Mr. 
 Breen. " He is angry — and — he never has forgiven 
 me. But you can reason with him." 
 
 "I.? Why should I.?" 
 
 " You must. You have ill-treated him. There 
 he goes now — between the cars ; hurry." 
 
 "But why? What for.? What am I to do?" 
 
 " Catch him. Talk with him. Explain what I 
 cannot. Apologize to him. Yes, you. Put aside 
 your dignity for him — for me. Please — hurry. Oh, 
 please. He turned up the street." 
 
 " I'm in for it," said the officer, dryly. " All 
 right; I'll do all I can for him. Here, Mr. Arthur, 
 will you please leave the grip in the parcel-room 
 at the station, with my name. I'll report, Miss 
 Arthur, if I live through it; but I ought to have 
 some brass knuckles, or a club. Good day." 
 
96 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 He hastened on and up Park Row after the tall 
 blue figure which he could see over the heads of the 
 crowd. " One sometimes wonders," he muttered as 
 he dodged along, " just what constitutes conduct 
 becoming an officer and a gentleman. As an officer, 
 I ought to call a policeman; as a gentleman, I must 
 do as I'm bid like a little man — run after this un- 
 licked scrapper, pat him on the back, soothe his 
 injured feelings, and forever lose his respect for me 
 as an officer." 
 
 He took his eyes off Dick for a moment or two 
 as the crowd impeded him, and when he looked again 
 he was not in sight. 
 
 CHAPTER XXHI 
 
 WHEN Dick had left the car he hurried past 
 the others and up Park Row in the mood of 
 an Apache at a torture-bee. He had given pain, and 
 savagely he rejoiced. What right had she, in her 
 insolence of beauty and position, to patronize and 
 pity him.'' He wanted none of her pity. 
 
 But underneath this raging was an obtruding 
 consciousness that he had acted like a sulky boy, 
 and for a moment it took charge of his soul — for 
 a moment he would have rushed through fire to reach 
 her and humble himself, and in this moment he 
 turned to go back, to follow her home if necessary; 
 but he saw Mr. Brcen pusliing toward him through 
 the crowd. " D — — n him," he growled ; " why don't 
 she send her precious brother too ? " He darted into 
 the nearest doorway; it was a pawnshop with another 
 entrance on William Street, and passing tlirougli he 
 doubled back, and by a passageway alongside the 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 97 
 
 bridge reached Park Row again at the foot of the 
 entrance. They were not in sight, and he paused. 
 
 " No," he muttered, " I'll fight it out to the end. 
 I'll prove myself as good as she or her ensign." 
 
 He was less savage now, but more consistent in 
 his resolve, and he crossed City Hall Park, found a 
 barber shop and had his hair cut. The result, as 
 he looked in the mirror, did not please him. His 
 features seemed larger and coarser, and near the 
 borders of the cropped hair were white streaks of 
 skin that had been shaded from the sun, " Spotted 
 like a brindle cow," he grumbled, " till I bleach out ; 
 but I've got to be civilised." In a near-by clothing 
 store he bought a suit, hat, linen, and neckwear, 
 which he donned in the dressing-room, and then 
 stepped into the street with his uniform in a bundle, 
 almost unrecognizable to a shipmate. 
 
 He would pawn his uniform ; but unwillingness to 
 meet Mr. Breen prevented him seeking one of the 
 numerous pawnshops in Park Row, so he recrossed 
 the Park, went east below the bridge, turned north, 
 and in Catherine Street, down near the river, found 
 a pawnbroker who advanced five dollars on the suit. 
 He would have purchased it outright for ten, for 
 it was of the finest cloth and flannel, stitched and 
 starred and crow-footed with silk ; but down in 
 Dick's rebellious heart was the man-of-war's-man's 
 love for his mustering-clothes, and he refused to sell. 
 When he was established as a landsman and a gen- 
 tleman, it would be a pleasant reminder of the life 
 he had escaped. 
 
 It was growing dark when he left the pawnshop. 
 The wind was rising, and damp snow filled the air, 
 which, melting underfoot, made a dirty slush that 
 wet his feet in a block's walk. He regretted not 
 
98 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 buying rubber overshoes, not because wet feet were 
 unusual, or troubled him in the least, but because 
 he must now act and feel like a citizen ; he must also 
 have an umbrella, and when he had obtained money, 
 an overcoat, which he would wear through the winter 
 whether he was cold or not. 
 
 His humiliation and anger at noon had prevented 
 him eating much at dinner, and feeling hungry now, 
 and reasoning that Mr. Breen could not remain very 
 long in Park Row, he tramped through the slush to 
 this street of cheap restaurants ; for he must econ- 
 omize until he found work. Before a huge dish of 
 hot corned-beef hash, he resigned himself to the lux- 
 ury of being a landsman. " Think of the way mess 
 cooks spoil good grub," he mused as he ate. 
 " Couldn't cook like this if you paid them. Four 
 years and a half in the navy — where you think by 
 regulation — with a boss at each hatchway. No 
 more for me. Ashore a man has one boss, and sleeps 
 in a bedroom with a window in it." 
 
 He was again in the street, the warmth of the res- 
 taurant behind him, the damp chill of the storm all 
 about him. He must find a boarding-house, and look 
 for work in the morning. Nothing better of the first 
 presented than one of the twenty-fivc-cent lodging- 
 houses on the Bowery, so he sought one, and sat in 
 the reading-room — to wait for bedtime. About him 
 were all manner of men, in all stages of poverty — 
 aJl out of work, as evidenced by their depressing, 
 half-hearted conversation. These men were not suc- 
 ceeding on shore, and some were well educated and 
 intelligent. He tried to read a newspaper, but gave 
 it up; for, cither from his wcU-fillcd stomach — wliicli 
 was beginning to distress him — or from the backward 
 swing of the mental pendulum, he could not keep his 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 99 
 
 mind off the day's happenings. He saw her face, 
 with its new expression. He shut his eyes to see it 
 smiling from the window of her home, but the vision 
 would not come ; all he could see was shock, and pain, 
 and embarrassment — the red spots on the cheeks. 
 
 In five minutes the reaction had set in strong; 
 and he reviled himself, doubting his sanity — again 
 in the agonies of dejection and self-contempt. He 
 understood the full force of his brutal speech, not 
 in its effect on her, — for he had never dreamed that 
 she had cleared him of the charge which embittered 
 his life, — ^but as it appealed to his manhood and sense 
 of fair play. Then his love for her arose in its 
 strength to punish him. She had come, voluntarily, 
 and apologized for a childish fault, in order that 
 she might beg him, for her sake, not to brand himself 
 with the stain that could in no wise reach her. What 
 did it mean.'' he asked himself. There flashed over 
 his mind a momentary thought that it meant love 
 for him ; but he put the thought from him as impossi- 
 ble — not for a brute like him. It was her generous 
 nobility of soul acting in spite of his oft-repeated 
 boorishness. 
 
 He arose and went out into the storm, fighting 
 his way against it to Catherine Street, down which 
 he turned, only to find the pawnshop closed ; for it 
 was after six o'clock. He was disappointed ; he 
 would have resumed his uniform and gone aboard 
 the ship that evening, to take up the burden she 
 had asked of him ; and it now meant a night in the 
 lodging-house, which, in his present mood, was 
 repugnant to him. He went slowly back, for he was 
 not feeling well; the dull pain in his stomach had 
 increased, and, under a lamp-post, a sudden fierce 
 gripe brought hira up, half bent over, and clinging 
 
100 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 to the iron post for support. A passer-by touched 
 him on the shoulder. It was Mr. Breen, wet and 
 bedraggled, with a tired, angry face. 
 
 "This you, Halpin? So you've done it, have 
 
 you 
 
 ? '» 
 
 "No, Mr. Ereen," gasped the subdued Dick. 
 " I've changed my mind. I'm going aboard in the 
 morning, when I get my clothes." 
 
 " You're going back," said the disgusted officer. 
 " If I'd known that I'd have done something better 
 with my time than searching every dive in sailor- 
 town for you. May I ask you, in all due humihty, 
 what has changed your mind ? " 
 
 " May I ask you, sir," said Dick, speaking with 
 difficulty, " why you waste your time looking for 
 me ? " 
 
 " Because a lady asked me to." 
 
 " That — is — why — I serve my time, sir — because 
 she asked me — O Lord ! " 
 
 " What's the matter with you.? Halpin, what ails 
 you.? " 
 
 " Stomach-ache, sir. I ate some Park Row liash." 
 
 The young officer grinned in spite of his mood. 
 " You want some peppermint, or ginger, I should 
 say. Come around the corner, Halpin. It's a tough 
 joint — I was just there — but the nearest, and — any 
 port in a storm." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 IT was not an ill-looking place, as saloons go, to 
 which Mr. Brcen assisted Dick. Tlie barroom 
 was small and the bar short, but it was neat and 
 dean. Around the walls were prints and niddels of 
 ships, brigs, and schooners, and on the shelf back 
 
THE AGE "OF :IRX)N 101 
 
 of the bar was the inevitable full-rigged ship in a 
 bottle. The floor was covered with clean sawdust, 
 and two round tables, with chairs and convenient 
 cuspidors, crowded the small space available. At 
 one table sat three men, stupid with drink. Their 
 nondescript dress, gathered in parts from the sea- 
 ports of two hemispheres, betrayed the merchant 
 sailor, and their blond heads and red faces their 
 Scandinavian birth. They glanced with dead eyes 
 at the two newcomers and went back to their medi- 
 tations and mutterings. Two men, sober, hard-faced, 
 and keen-eyed, arose from the other table and stepped 
 into a rear room, but were called back by the man 
 behind the bar — a large, brawny fellow, with beetling 
 eyebrows and a long pointed nose. 
 
 " Want to sit down, gents ? " he said. " Good fire 
 in the back room. Bad day, ain't it.'' " 
 
 " Yes," said the ensign, whose glance at the table 
 seemed to have prompted the man's suggestion. 
 " This — my friend here is sick. Bring two hot 
 whiskys, and put a good dose of ginger in one." 
 
 " Yes, sir. I'll fix 'im up." 
 
 Dick was in dire pain, unarble to stand erect, and 
 too humble of mind and weak of will to resist or 
 resent the officer's assistance. They sat down close 
 to a hot stove in the back room, which, besides the 
 table and chairs, contained no furniture or decora- 
 tions. A door in the side of the wall seemed to lead 
 to another room and a stairway to the floor above. 
 
 " Sailor's boarding-house, sir," groaned Dick as 
 he collapsed on the table. 
 
 The hot stimulants arrived and were quickly con- 
 sumed; then Mr. Breen studied the ghastly face 
 opposite him. 
 
 " Feel better, Halpin.'' " he asked at length. 
 
lOi MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " Yes, sir— a little," 
 
 " It isn't often, Halpin, that an officer gets a 
 chance to hobnob with a blue-jacket; but I want to 
 talk with you, and you seem to need it. Circum- 
 stances have brought us into contact lately in ways 
 not prescribed by the regulations ; and I have no- 
 ticed an antagonism on your part which I have 
 tried not to earn. Now, I want to ask you — is it 
 because I surprised you the other day — at a time 
 when number three makes a crowd.''" 
 
 " Well, sir," answered Dick, evasively preferring 
 this view of the case to stand rather than confess 
 his jealousy, " Bess — Miss — the young lady felt very 
 badly." 
 
 " Naturally," said the ensign, with a short, dry 
 laugh. 
 
 " And then, sir," went on Dick, more truthfully, 
 " you put me under arrest in my own town, when 
 I thought — and I still think — that I was in the right. 
 Then to-day, you showed me up before my worst 
 enemy. There's an old difference between George 
 Arthur and myself." 
 
 " I cannot ask nor receive any confidences regard- 
 ing Mr. Arthur; nor do I wish to probe into your 
 private affairs; but, at times — what's the matter.'' 
 Are you worse? " 
 
 Dick had lost all sense of gravitation and phys- 
 ical adjustment. The walls were moving around 
 him and separating from each other and the ceil- 
 ing. The table seemed tilted, and he gripped 
 it by the edges to prevent it slipping away, while 
 Mr. Breen's earnest face was above him looking 
 down. 
 
 " Hang my fool tongue," muttered the ensign. 
 ** The Lord only knows what's back of this mix. 
 
THE AGE OF IRON 103 
 
 And — and — what ails me, I wonder. Stove too hot 
 — I'm light-headed. Let's get out, Halpin." 
 
 Dick painfully sat erect, lurched backward, pulled 
 himself forward with his hands and got on his feet, 
 only to sink into the chair again. 
 
 " I'm drugged, thir," he said, thickly. " Look 
 outh — board'-houthe-crimpth — shanghai," He slid 
 sidewise to the floor and lay still. 
 
 The officer scrambled to his feet and staggered 
 to the door, but found it locked. 
 
 " Police ! " he yelled. " Police ! " And grabbing 
 table and chairs for support, he made his way to 
 the side door, which also was locked. 
 
 " Dry up in there," said a voice from the bar- 
 room. 
 
 The ensign answered incoherently, reeled across 
 the room, and fell to the floor; then the door 
 opened and the bartender appeared, followed by the 
 two men he had called back. 
 
 " Shut the door," he snarled. " Them Souwegians 
 ain't none too full." 
 
 He searched the pockets of the unconscious men, 
 removed what was of value, and said : — 
 
 " Upstairs wid 'em. Get 'em ready — and get 
 them two bags in the closet for 'em. Hurry up, 
 now. Tug's goin' down at eight. If they want 
 more dope, sing out." 
 
 He went out, unlocked the front door, looked at 
 the three stupid men at the table, took his place 
 behind the bar, and the saloon resumed business. 
 
 That evening a tug steamed down the bay 
 through the storm. In the warm pilot-house, be- 
 sides the tug captain, were a shipmaster, a Sandy 
 Hook pilot, and a boarding-house runner — one of 
 the two men who had got Dick and his officer 
 
104. PIASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " ready." Blood money paid by captains for sailors 
 is not due until the goods are delivered; so this 
 runner, as he explained to the tug captain, was 
 going down with the two men, who had signed arti- 
 cles that morning, had "jumped their allotment," 
 got drunk and been caught, and now lay on the 
 forward deck in the sleet and snow with their heads 
 pillowed on their clothes bags — sleeping it off. 
 
 Before midnight, a ship put to sea; and before 
 she was two days out the whole world had arisen 
 to the news that the United States battle-ship Maine 
 had been destroyed in Havana harbor. 
 
 BOOK III 
 
 BARBARISM 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 "TTEY, below, there! Hey, below! What's the 
 X J. matter? Hey? Heave out — ^heave out. 
 Out on deck wi' ye. " Dick heard dimly, groaned 
 from the pain in his head and joints, and rolling 
 over, went to sleep again. 
 
 It was perhaps not a minute, but it seemed to 
 him hours later when a hard fist knuckled his throat 
 and he felt himself being dragged forcibly outward 
 and downward to a bone-wrenching collapse on the 
 floor. Then again he heard the angry, strident 
 voice : — 
 
 " Get out on deck to yer work, ye bloody . 
 
 Out wi' ye, or I'll make ye wish ye're in h — 1." 
 
 " What is it — what's up ? " he asked brokenly, as 
 he looked up at a figure standing over hiiu in the 
 
BARBARISM 105 
 
 flickering light of a flare lamp. Around him were 
 bunks, and on the stanchions between them hung 
 oilskins, coats, and clothes bags. From the open 
 door at the end of the apartment the cold wind of 
 a bleak morning came in, chilly and damp. 
 
 " Get out o' this and clap on to them flyin'-jib 
 hal'ards," bellowed the man above him. " Quick, 
 or I'll lift ye." 
 
 Dick was not quick, either in his movements or 
 in his mental processes ; his head was aching and 
 his brain reeling from the eff'ects of the drug, and 
 even the fall to the floor had not thoroughly awak- 
 ened him ; so he was " lifted " — a few inches, at 
 least — and rolled a foot nearer the door by the 
 impact of a heavy boot; but it was a rubber boot, 
 and no bones were broken. Arising unsteadily, he 
 yielded to the pushes and punches of the other and 
 staggered through the door to the deck without, 
 where, to the music of flapping canvas, whistling 
 wind, and their own discordant calls, men were set- 
 ting the flying jib. 
 
 " Get a holt o' them halyards," came the voice 
 of authority in his ear, followed by a blow that 
 launched him nearly headlong into the group of 
 men hoisting the sail. He was accustomed to obey, 
 but not to being struck; and when thoroughly 
 awake and able to remember the events of the 
 night before, and to realize that he was now at sea, 
 on board a large, square-rigged ship, he asked the 
 man nearest him for an explanation. 
 
 " What ye growlin' 'bout, matey ? " answered the 
 man. " Ye've just run foul o' the bucko second 
 mate — the boy bucko. We've been doin' the same 
 all night. He's big enough, but too young for the 
 noise he makes." 
 
106 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " Then I've been shanghaied," groaned Dick. 
 " Is Mr. Breen aboard? " 
 
 "Who — yer side partner? He's aft wi' tlic other 
 watch. Oh, ye've struck a sweet ship, matey. Been 
 to sea before? " 
 
 " In the navy." 
 
 "Whew — both o' ye? The Lord help ye then, 
 till ye lam yer work." 
 
 " Dry up that gufF at the hal'ards," bawled the 
 officer from amidships. 
 
 " Aye, aye, sir," answered the man, cheerfully. 
 *' Up with her, lads. Up wi' that headsall. Take 
 a hold here matey," ho added in a lower tone to 
 Dick. " Take a hold, or yc'll have him at ye again." 
 
 And Dick pretended to pull on the lialyards — 
 which was all that he could do in his demoralized 
 condition. The sail was soon up, and tlicy triir.med 
 down the sheet at the noisy behest of the officer. 
 Then they were all driven aft to assist others of 
 the crew in mast-heading the mizzentopsail-yard. 
 The strong, fresh breeze was rapidly clearing Dick's 
 benumbed faculties, and as he hauled with the others, 
 he searched his memory in tlie effort to locate the 
 second mate's voice. He had heard it somewhere, 
 he was sure, but could not remember where, and 
 though daylight was brcal<Ing on the lee beam, it 
 was still too dark to distinguish features. Indeed, 
 it was only when the second mate called to them 
 to " bend their backs," and he muttered something in 
 reply, that he became aware that the unkempt figure 
 just in front of him on the rope was INIr. Brocn, 
 
 " None of that, Halpin," said the latter in an 
 undertone. " Keep your mouth dosed tight until 
 I can talk with you. They've put us in separate 
 watches. Roused me out at midnight." 
 
BARBARISM 107 
 
 " Very good, sir," answered Dick. 
 
 " And don't ' sir ' me here. Do as they tell you, 
 and say nothing. We're in a bad fix." 
 
 Though the air was now clear of snow, and the 
 storm of the night before had sufficiently moder- 
 ated to permit the carrying of all three topsails, 
 maintopgallant-sail, and flying jib, there was still 
 a force to the fitful puffs of the westerly wind and 
 a snap to the offshore sea which hammered the ship 
 and made more sail inadvisable. So when the miz- 
 zentopsail was up and the yard braced, a bellowing 
 roar sounded from the poop-deck : " Relieve the 
 wheel and lookout. That'll do the watch." 
 
 " Your watch on deck, youngster," said Dick's 
 friend, as they coiled up the gear. " No choice 
 between ye when we lifted ye up the side; but the 
 mate picked yer chum and the second mate picked 
 you. Wonder where the bloody mate is. Haven't 
 heard his yap this watch, but he was busy enough 
 up to midnight." 
 
 " What ship is this," asked Dick, " and where's 
 she bound.? " 
 
 " Mary Earl, o' Bath, Cap'n Bilker, o' Cape Cod. 
 Ever hear o' him? First mate's another Cape Cod 
 murderer, and second mate's a bran' new bucko just 
 out o' the boys' room, I take it — not used to bossin' 
 men, an' not more'n half a seaman, but a jim-hickey 
 with his fists. Guess you an' me an' yer chum are 
 the only Americans forrard. We're goin' out to 
 Hong Kong. My name's Sawyer, o' Hoboken, an' 
 I go to sea to keep out o' Jersey. How'd ye come 
 to be shanghaied .? " 
 
 " Knockout drops." 
 
 " That's bad. Stick to yer own boardin'-house. 
 Ye'll be robbed all right, anywhere, but yer won't 
 
108 IMASTERS OF MEN 
 
 be doped if yer 'greeable. Guess we'll get some 
 coffee soon — what they call coffee, I mean ; the doc- 
 tor's turned out." 
 
 Others had coiled up the rest of the gear and 
 the two went forward, Dick observing in the gath- 
 ering light that Sawyer was a tall, loose-jointed 
 man with a hooked nose and a ratlier humorous cast 
 of countenance. The " doctor " was up, smoke was 
 coming from the galley chimney, and the watch on 
 deck were grouped under the weather-rail near the 
 fore rigging, evidently waiting for the cai'ly coffee 
 served in all American ships at " turn-to." The 
 other watch had gone below, but as Dick joined the 
 group the ensign appeared at the forward corner 
 of the house and beckoned to him. He followed to 
 the topsail-sheet bitts just forward of the fore- 
 mast, and here, in an open space which precluded 
 listening, Mr. Breen said in a low voice: — 
 
 " Know anything about the American hellship, 
 Halpin? " 
 
 " No, sir — only what I've heard." 
 
 " Drop the ' sir ' while we're here. Fix the habit 
 upon you, or you'll get us both into trouble. This 
 is a hellship, and the hellship is the bhickest shame 
 resting upon America. I've had enough — at least, 
 all I dare to risk. I went aft and protested to the 
 captain when they roused me out at midnight, 
 stating that I was a naval officer. I was kicked 
 around the poop-deck and thrown down to the main 
 deck. Believe me.? Not a bit. Thought I was 
 drunk — and to tell the truth, my speech at the 
 time would bear out such a construction. We're in 
 rags. I've got a bagful more of them, and suppose 
 you have, too, unless some one has stolen them. 
 Now, this much I know, from what I have seen and 
 
BARBARISM 109 
 
 heard : the mere presence in the forecastle of an edu- 
 cated man is a continuous menace to the brutes who 
 command and officer such ships as this, and is war- 
 rant enough for them to murder him ; for they know 
 that he is apt to make trouble ashore. As the law 
 now stands they can punish an insolent sailor with 
 a blow, and if he returns it, they may kill him. I 
 cannot convince them of my identity — neither can 
 you. So I shall resent no insults until I am able to 
 act; and as for you, do as you're told, keep out of 
 trouble, — for I may want you in a hurry, — keep 
 your mouth shut, call me by my last name, and don't 
 let them see us together too often." 
 
 Before Dick could reply the ensign was gone ; 
 so Dick secured another man's tin pot and his own 
 share of the coffee, which had been brought to the 
 port forecastle. It was vile stufr to begin with, and 
 had been rendered viler by the molasses stirred in 
 to sweeten it; but it was hot, and it warmed Dick's 
 chilled and aching body, and cleared more of the 
 fog from his brain, so that by the time a rasping 
 " Turn to, there. 'Buckets and brooms. Get out 
 that deck-pump forrard there " came from amid- 
 ships, he began to feel a lively interest in the speaker 
 — the man who had dragged him from his sleep and 
 struck him. He watched the giant figure lumbering 
 forward, and even stepped into his path for a better 
 view of his face. He knew him. It was Pig Jones. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 PIG JONES, four years older, grown to man's 
 physique, and with the facial characteristics — 
 slanting forehead, protruding chin, and small squint- 
 
110 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 ing eyes — which had given him his nickname among 
 the boys, developed into as unpleasant a combination 
 as may go toward the make-up of the human coun- 
 tenance. It was a brutal, sensual, cruel face — a face 
 bearing a standing invitation to an honest fist:, one 
 that most men would feel pleasure in striking. And 
 as Dick backed toward the bucket rack at the fore- 
 mast, it followed him with a leering expression 
 strongly impregnated with curiosity, wonder, and 
 doubt. / 
 
 " Hey, you ! " he cried, in a tone as unpleasant 
 as his face ; " you the man I pulled out at eight 
 bells? What's your name.''" 
 
 " Billson, sir," answered Dick, remembering the 
 ensign's injunction as to caution, and influenced in 
 his choice of a name by the momentary comparison 
 with his late antagonist which the ofEcer's giant 
 figure had aroused. 
 
 " Billson, hey? You look bloody like a plug-ugly 
 I went to school with. Look out ye don't look more 
 like him, or I'll take it out o' you." 
 
 " Aye, aye, sir," returned Dick, submissively, 
 as he took down a couple of buckets. The 
 officer stepped toward him, searching his im- 
 movable face for any hint of sarcasm behind 
 the answer, and finding none, thundered forceful 
 objurgations to the rest to " get that deck-pump 
 aft." 
 
 In the washing down of the deck that morning 
 the second mate watched Dick continuously, and so 
 impressed him with his suspicions that, when oppor- 
 tunity offered, he requested Sawyer to tell no one 
 that he was a man-of-war's-man ; for he had reason 
 to believe that Pig had known of his choice of a 
 career. And when the watch turned out at seven 
 
BARBARISM 111 
 
 bells he apprised the ensign of his change of name 
 and his reasons. 
 
 " One of the gang, Halpin ? Well, if we are any 
 good — you and I — you'll have a chance at him before 
 long. And perhaps not with your fists. I'll do 
 murder before I'll submit to this. Now, Billson, get 
 to work ; here comes our superior officer." 
 
 Mr. Jones was coming forward. The ensign 
 stepped into the forecastle to his breakfast, and Dick 
 resumed his deck-swabbing. There was strong cause 
 for the ensign's bitter tone and murderous mind. 
 You cannot drug, rob, and strip a naval officer, dress 
 him in greasy rags, swear at him and kick him until 
 he is willing to pull wet, hard ropes through a stormy 
 mid-watch, and have him in the mood of the gentle- 
 man — temperate of mind and refined of speech. Dick 
 was now the milder of the two. At eight bells his 
 watch was relieved and he went to breakfast, — 
 manufactured coffee and cracker hash, the latter an 
 unsavory mess of broken hardtack and gristly beef, 
 soaked over-night and baked brown. Confiscating as 
 his own a last voyage pot with pan and spoon, he 
 helped himself, wondering, as he forced the stuff 
 down, how the well-fed ensign had succeeded ; and 
 there came to him a momentary feeling of ungen- 
 erous and anarchistic joy that this pet of society and 
 the government knew now what sailors must eat. 
 The mood was but transient, and left him with the 
 filling of his stomach, so that when a loud summons 
 for all hands to muster at the break of the poop 
 came in through the door, he walked aft with the 
 crowd of men, fully prepared to enter into any de- 
 fensive and offensive alliance which Mr. Breen miffht 
 propose. 
 
 He had rummaged the bedless bunk in which he 
 
112 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 slept off his stupor, finding a damp canvas bag filled 
 with grimy working clothes, and a damp and greasy 
 cap, which he had donned; but there was no time 
 to change the rags he wore — drenched by the storm 
 in the ride down in the tug — for dry ones, and he 
 stood in that disheveled crew perhaps the sorriest 
 looking of all. The carpenter seemed prosperous, 
 and the cook shone in immaculate white; but the 
 men were badly blessed, by nature and fate. Here 
 and there showed a clean article of apparel, — a new 
 cap or hat, shaming the garments beneatli, a new 
 pair of rubber boots, a new sou'wester or a new 
 sheath-knife and belt. But aside from tljese thej 
 wore the patched, fringed, and tar-bespoiled gar- 
 ments of their last voyage, and on each face was 
 a common expression of earnestness and hopelessness. 
 Over their heads arose the Roman nose and humor- 
 ous eye of Sawyer, and in the front rank stood 
 Ensign Breen of the United States navy, pictur- 
 esque in his vestments, and with a countenance as 
 woebegone as it is possible for a shangliaied grad- 
 uate of Annapolis to assume. The steward was at 
 the wheel, and scowling down on them from the poop 
 were Mr. Jones and a gray-bearded man who wore 
 a slouch hat and long pilotcloth overcoat, in 
 the pockets of which lie kept his hands. They 
 needed no introduction to know tlie captain of 
 the ship. He slowly scanned each of the twenty 
 men's faces, paced a few turns fore and aft on 
 the poop, then brouglit himself up squarely 
 against tlie monkey-rail, his hands still in his 
 pockets. 
 
 " My name's Bilker," he said slowly and im- 
 pressively; then, after a moment's silence, he re- 
 peated in a louder voice, " my name's Bilker." 
 
BARBARISM 113 
 
 The men shuffled their feet uneasily under his 
 stare, but none answered. 
 
 " I'm John Bilker, o' Provincetown," continued 
 the captain, " and I've sailed ships out o' N'York 
 and Boston for twenty-five years ; and I 'low that 
 in all that time I never let any measly gang o' gen- 
 tlemen rope-haulers get the best o' me. You hear 
 
 me? You hear what I say, you pack o' poor 
 
 men's dogs." 
 
 He took another walk along the deck and re- 
 turned. Dick glanced over at the ensign to note the 
 effect of this language on him; but his dejected face 
 was non-committal. 
 
 " In all my goin' to sea," went on the captain, 
 his voice rising, " I never seen a worse lot o' beach- 
 combers and river-thieves. There ain't a whole man 
 among you — there ain't half a man ; but there's a 
 murderin' scoundrel among you that I want. Last 
 night, along 'bout six bells o' the middle watch, my 
 first officer, all fagged out from tryin' to get sail 
 on a ship with a crew that don't know a buntline 
 from a sheet, was woke up by a sneakin' thief goin' 
 through his desk. Yes, sir — a sneakin', bloody- 
 minded thief that tried to kill him, too, 'fore he got 
 thoroughly woke up. Then he ran out on deck and 
 forrard to the rest o' you. And that pore man is 
 down there groanin', with his arm broken at the 
 elbow, while the murderin' thief that done it is among 
 you, laughin' in his sleeve, and wishin' he'd finished 
 his bloody work. Now, I want that man to step out 
 and own up." 
 
 Not a man stirred. They looked at one another 
 with inquiry in their faces, then up at their captain, 
 only to fall back, crouching, and scattering to the 
 right and left, with involuntary raising of arms to 
 
114 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 screen their faces. Bilker had brought his hands 
 out of his pockets, and in each was a bright revolver. 
 
 " Shove him out," he thundered as he leveled the 
 pistols. " Give up that low-down scoundrel. I'll 
 show him what he can do and what he can't do. 
 Quick, you dock rats, or I'll hurt some o' you." 
 
 " Hold on, Cap'n," said Sawyer. 
 
 " Are you the man .'' Come out here." 
 
 " No, Cap'n, I'm not," said the sailor, stepping 
 bravely up to the poop steps. " I'm no thief, an' 
 if I was, I wouldn't be fool enough — hold on, sir; 
 I wish you'd point 'em t'other way, sir. They 
 might go off. What I want to say, Cap'n, if ye'll 
 'xcuse me, is that yer takin' a mighty poor way to 
 get that thief, whoever he is. Ye begin by damnin' 
 us all 'round, an' that nat'rally wcfrks men up 
 against ye, and then ye pull yer guns. Now, what 
 man's goin' to own up in the face o' threats o' bein' 
 shot?" 
 
 " None o' your back lip. Don't you talk to me. 
 Come up liere on the poop. I swear I think you 
 know all about it." 
 
 Sawyer ascended the steps, was collared by Mr. 
 Jones, and hurled against the fonvard cabin com- 
 panion, near which he remained, with the second 
 officer watching him out of the corner of his eye. 
 
 " Where's that counter-jumper who comes aft 
 when work's goin' on swearin' he's an officer in the 
 navy.''" demanded the captain. His eye wandered 
 over the crowd and settled on jNIr. Brcen. 
 
 "You tlie man.''" he inquired, straightening one 
 pistol toward him. 
 
 " It might have been me, sir," answered the en- 
 sign, mournfully. " Please don't shoot me, sir. I 
 had dreams, sir. I have been drugged and kidnapped 
 
BARBARISM 115 
 
 on this boat, sir, but I haven't done any harm, sir." 
 
 Dick was astounded, but held himself together; 
 and the captain, searching keenly the sorrowful face 
 beneath his gun, said: " Dreams? What you drivin' 
 at?" 
 
 " I've always dreamed, sir, that I was an officer 
 in the navy, and I was having such a dream when 
 I waked up on that stage up there, sir, and you 
 were kicking me." 
 
 " You're no sailor. What's your trade? " 
 
 " I'm a gentleman's man, sir." 
 
 " What? " roared the captain. 
 
 " A gentleman's man, sir — a valet. I cook welsh 
 rabbits late at night for my master, and I wake 
 him up in the morning, and see to his bawth, and 
 sometimes I shave him, and I always have to press 
 his trousers, and answer the bell — " 
 
 " That is, you're a flunkey." 
 
 " That's what they call us in England, sir." 
 
 " Well," answered the Captain, thoughtfully and 
 contemptuously, " I guess you didn't break my first 
 mate's arm." He put his pistols in his pockets and 
 turned to Sawyer. 
 
 " You an American ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, an American," answered Sawyer, vehe- 
 mently. " An American and an able seaman ; and 
 I've held command — I'm no fool to break into a first 
 mate's room in this kind of a ship 'fore I'm twenty- 
 four hours aboard." 
 
 " Held command? What in ? " 
 
 " Sound schooners, sir. I'm no navigator, but 
 I'm no fool thief—" 
 
 " Get down on deck. Find out who broke Mr. 
 Thorpe's arm and I'll make you third mate." 
 
 Sawyer answered respectfully and descended, 
 
116 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 while Captain Bilker ordered Mr. Jones to set the 
 fore and mizzen topgallant sails, relieve the steward 
 at the wheel, and dismiss the starboard watch. No 
 doubt Sawyer's logic had convinced him. 
 
 Later on Sawyer said to Dick: " IMake me third 
 mate, would he.'* If I knew the hero that broke 
 that man-driver's arm, I'd be a father to him." 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 DICK would have talked further with Mr. Breen 
 before turning in, but, on looking around for 
 him, discovered that he was aft at the wheel; so he 
 changed his clothes, arranged what was dry of his 
 baggage beneath and above him for bedding, and 
 slept until noon, waking at the stroke of eight bells 
 practically recovered from the effects of the drug. 
 On going aft to the galley at Sawyer's sleepy com- 
 mand from an upper bunk to " get the grub, 
 youngster," he found that Mr. Breen had suffered 
 later injury which had not yet come to him. He 
 was at the galley door sawing wood for the cook, 
 and his handsome face was disfigured by a black eye. 
 
 " Kicked and thumped away from the wheel for 
 bad steering and for not knowing the compass," he 
 said cautiously, in answer to Dick's look of inquiry. 
 " Inconvenient and unpleasant, but necessary ; I'm 
 an ignorant landsman. Remember your part: do 
 your work, as a sailor, and avoid all trouble. See 
 me in the last dog-watch. Go ahead, now. Get your 
 dinner." 
 
 He shifted the stick of cordwood along the saw- 
 buck and sawed; for SawA'cr — unknown by him — 
 was coming to help Dick bring tlic dinner. At tlie 
 
BARBARISM 117 
 
 same time the carpenter, with a bundle of oakum 
 under his arm and a heavy calking mallet over his 
 shoulder, appeared around the corner of the house 
 on the way to his shop, just forward of the galley. 
 The carpenter paused before the pile of wood at 
 the moment the cook's black face appeared in the 
 galley door. He was a particularly evil-faced negro, 
 and the geniality of his race seemed denied him; for 
 he looked sourly at Sawyer and Bick, saying: — 
 
 " Don't stand 'round my door axin' fool quesh- 
 uns, now. Dah's you poke an' peas — gov'ment 
 whack fo' all han's fo'ward till you gibs up de t'ief. 
 Take it an' gwan." 
 
 " What's this ? " asked Sawyer, angrily, as he 
 sniffed the mess in the dishpan handed out to him. 
 " Government 'lowance ain't much worse than the 
 regular thing; but why don't you sift out the mag- 
 gots 'fore you cook up last v'yage peas ? " 
 
 " Don't you talk to me, you no 'count trash. 
 Don't you tell me how to cook, or I cut you all up ; 
 you see? " 
 
 He reached behind him and showed a sharp 
 carving knife; and the fuming Sawyer went forward 
 with his pan, while Dick cautiously picked up the 
 pan of boiled salt pork. Turning with it, he beheld 
 the carpenter, a large, bewhiskered, and dyspeptic- 
 looking Scotchman, with his hand on Mr. Breen's 
 collar. He had dropped the bundle of oakum, but 
 still held the calking mallet, while the cook still held 
 the knife. Dick set down the pan. 
 
 " Ye thunderin' loon," roared the big carpenter 
 in the ear of the slimly built ensign, " an' why do 
 ye no go aft to the poop wi' yer tools an' material. 
 Wha put ye here, to scar up a good deck an' mak' 
 work for a mon wi' plenty to do ? " He gave him 
 
118 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 a shake, then flung him against the rail. Dick 
 waited for orders. 
 
 " If you please, sir," said the ensign, — and only 
 Dick could detect the quiver of rage in the humble 
 accents, — " I was told by the captain to saw wood 
 for this gentleman, and he told me to saw it 
 here." 
 
 "He did-f* An' say," he said to the cook; "d'ye 
 ken na mair o' the value o' good plankin' than to 
 sanction this ? " 
 
 Out came the cook, his eyes gleaming and carving 
 knife gripped tight. 
 
 " Don't you come 'round inte'ferin' 'tween me an' 
 my boy," he said. " He's my boy, an' he's gwine to 
 saw my wood whenebber I want him. You hear.? 
 An' he's gwine to saw it jess where I tell him, too; 
 an' if you don't lak it, you go aft an' talk to de 
 skipper." 
 
 " I'll talk to the skipper, nae doot," answered the 
 carpenter, steadily, as he eyed the flourished knife; 
 " but the question now is, are ye threatenin' me wi' 
 that weepon? If ye are, I'll get along witliout him. 
 Put it doon." He advanced toward the cook. 
 
 " Keep away dere, sah," stormed the negro, as he 
 raised the knife high over his head. " I's a peace- 
 able man till I's 'roused, but I's been a bad man in 
 my time. You hear — " 
 
 The calking mallet struck him squarely over the 
 eyes. It was a cylinder of lignum vit.T, about fifteen 
 inches in length and three in diameter, banded at 
 the ends with iron, and fitted with a small foot-long 
 handle at its middle. Any one who has seen a sliip- 
 carpenter or calker at work can understand tlie 
 development and mobility of the wrist-muscles 
 brought into play, and with these muscles alone the 
 
BARBARISM 119 
 
 carpenter had sped the mallet from his shoulder 
 with the speed and accuracy of an Indian's toma- 
 hawk. The cook went down, but arose in a moment, 
 smiling, — or, rather, grinning, — and looked wildly 
 about for his knife, which had dropped from his 
 hand. 
 
 " Fair exchange is nae rubbery," said the car- 
 penter, coolly, as he twirled the knife by its handle, 
 " an' I thout I'd trade weepons wi' ye ; but if ye'd 
 have mine ye maun go over the seed for it. It war 
 no constructed for armor-piercin', an' caroomed on 
 yer superstructure. Get ye into yer galley, ye 
 swine, or I'll mak shark bait o' ye. An' I'll e'en 
 report ye to the skipper an' keep yer toothpick for 
 scrappers." He stepped forward, but the cook re- 
 treated into the galley. 
 
 "What's up here?" asked the second mate, ap- 
 pearing on the scene. 
 
 "What's up, sir.?" answered Chips, as he turned. 
 " I war expostulatin' wi' this Senegambian about the 
 condeetion o' the deck gin his wood-sawyer gets 
 through, an' he come oot wi' his assegai; an' I've 
 lost my best corkin' mallet — " 
 
 " Take this stuff forrard," said the officer to 
 Breen, the sleep of his late watch below still in his 
 eyes. " Don't ye know any more'n to saw hard 
 wood over a bare deck? " — his voice was rising — 
 "Hey? Don't 5^e know any more'n that?" he 
 shouted, now thoroughly awake. " Get that dunnage 
 on the fore hatch, spread it out, an' pile this wood 
 on it 'fore ye do any more." He aimed a kick at 
 Breen, who dodged it by an inch and went forward 
 with his saw and sawhorse. 
 
 " What are you doin' here ? " demanded Mr. Jones 
 of Dick. 
 
120 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 *' After the dinner, sir," he answered, picking up 
 the pan of pork. 
 
 " Did he have an}' hand in this, Chips? " 
 
 " No, sir. IMerely a non-combatant spectator." 
 
 " Get out o' this," he said, and then, to the car- 
 penter : " Chips, you're to keep yer hands off other 
 people, an' yer nose out their business. I'll see to 
 the men, an' I'll do the fightin*. That's what I'm 
 here for. Give the doctor his knife." 
 
 " Vera good, Mr. Jones ; but I'll no stand quiet 
 'fore a knife, I'll assure ye o' that." And the knife 
 whirled through the door and rattled on the brick 
 flooring of the galley. 
 
 " All right ; an'. Doctor, you keep off the deck, 
 or ye'll have me foul o' you." 
 
 " Yes, sah," answered the cook from v.ithin. 
 
 The dignified peacemaker went aft. Chips entered 
 his shop with his bundle of oakum, and the incident 
 ended; but it was apparent to all who had seen, that 
 henceforward there would be little of human 
 brotherhood between the carpenter and the cook. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 *'\!17'HAT kep' ye so long, younker.^ " asked 
 V V Sawyer, as Dick entered with the pork. 
 His eight watchmates were seated, on boxes, buckets, 
 and chests, around the dishpan, picking at what 
 they had taken out. He placed the pork on tlie floor, 
 seated himself on a bucket, and lielpcd himself to 
 the soup. 
 
 " Scrap," he answered. " Chips floored the cook 
 with a calking mallet." 
 
BARBARISM 121 
 
 " What for? » 
 
 " Cook came out with his knife. What kind of 
 provender is this, anyhow? Regular thing?" 
 
 " Government allowance ; but the government don't 
 prescribe that it must be good." 
 
 " I heave the whole bloody lot out der door," said 
 a red-faced German, arising with his pan. 
 
 " Steady as you go, there, Dutch," said Sawyer. 
 " Ye'll only have to lick it up in yer watch below. 
 Sit down." 
 
 Dutch subsided, and Dick spooned off a portion 
 of the fat pork. It quivered like jelly and filled 
 the forecastle with its odor. Nor did its appearance 
 speak well for it ; it was pale, greasy yellow, speckled 
 with green. 
 
 " I don't know," said Dick, sitting back against 
 the bunk behind him. " I can eat this when I'm 
 hungry enough, but not yet." 
 
 " Plenty o' hardbread in the barge," said Sawyer ; 
 " we'll get our pound a day when it's gone ; so go 
 easy." 
 
 Dick munched hardbread, — which happened to be 
 fresh, — and the example being set, one by one the 
 men dumped their portions of peas into the dishpan 
 and followed suit. They were a cosmopolitan crowd, 
 representative of most maritime nations, and had al- 
 ready learned each other's names. Dick had given 
 them his alias. Besides Sawyer, of Hoboken, there 
 were the excitable German, Wagner, a fair-haired 
 Swede named Swanson, a thin-faced, swarthy Span- 
 iard who gave the name of Pedro, and an equally 
 thin-faced and swarthy Frenchman named Frank, 
 Winskel, a Russian, Peter, a West Indian negro, 
 and Smith, a little, stoop-shouldered cockney with 
 a villainous accent. 
 
122 PIASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " We'll get this," said Sawyer, " until we tell the 
 skipper who done up the mate last night." 
 
 "Who it was?" asked Wagner. 
 
 " Don't know, an' don't care ; wouldn't tell if I 
 did know. But it was none o' this watch, you bet. 
 Billson's the only man I'd suspect, and he was dopy 
 all night." Sawyer looked around rather contemptu- 
 ously. 
 
 " Well, Hi'll be jiggered if Hi can stand much 
 o' this sort o' chuck," whined Smith. " Wot's a 
 man goin' to do, hany 'ow.'* Gimme bellyful. Hi 
 say, an' then Hi can work wi' the next man ; but 
 wot can any bloomin' bloke do hif 'alf starved. Hi'm 
 one for going haft an' tellin' the hold man wot he 
 his." 
 
 " Oh, shut up ! Ye'd give a shipmate away 
 quick enough, but ye wouldn't face anybody 
 aft." 
 
 "Wouldn't Hi.'' Just make up the crowd to back 
 me, Hi say, an' Hi'U do the talkin'," said Smith, 
 arising bravely to his feet ; " an' hif ye can't f oiler 
 me, Hi might 'ave somethin' to say habout ^Y]lo 
 done hit." He looked steadily at Sawyer, and the 
 long Jerseyite also stood erect. He collared the 
 cockney, shook him a little, smote him with the open 
 hand on one ear, changed hands and smote the other, 
 then sat him down hard on a chest. 
 
 " If I'd gone far enough to tackle tlie mate," he 
 said, sternly, " I'd ha' gone fartlier, an' been in irons 
 'fore this. Now, sing small. You know that it takes 
 a better lot o' men than tkis crowd to go aft with 
 any kind o' bluff. You know what it means, in a 
 Yankee ship, to go aft with a kick about grub or 
 anything else. Ye'll get nothin' but abuse, and if 
 ye stick out, ye'll get buckshot." 
 
BARBARISM 123 
 
 The cockney was rather dazed, and remained quiet 
 until he recovered. 
 
 " I don't know 'bout dot," said Wagner, puffing 
 vigorously to give draught to his pipe. " In my 
 last ship we go aft und we kick about der dufF dot 
 had no plooms by it, an' der skipper, he coom down, 
 an' he look, an' he give hell to der steward, an' we 
 get plooms." 
 
 "What country ship was it?" demanded Sawyer. 
 
 " English — Durdock Castle." 
 
 " The difference 'tween heaven and hell. This 
 is a Yankee ship with a Yankee skipper an' mates. 
 I'm a Yankee — at least, an American — an' kinder 
 proud o' my country; but I'm not proud o' some 
 o' the products, an' I'd rather be in hell without 
 claws than aboard of a Yankee ship wi' the mates 
 down on me. Don't talk to me 'bout goin' aft 'less 
 yer ready to murder the after-guard an' take the 
 ship. What then? Can ye navigate? Is there a 
 man here that can even cook the grub? Not one. 
 S'pose ye could. Only a matter o' time when ye'd 
 hang. They always get ye. But ye couldn't get 
 that far. Think of it: here's the skipper with his 
 shotgun and pistols, the big second mate — mate now 
 — steward with a gun in his fist. Chips with his 
 broad-axe, an' the cook with a knife. An' the cook's 
 a whole team by himself. Made a knife-play on me 
 'cause I kicked. What did Chips do, Billson? " 
 
 " Made a row over the woodpile scarring the deck, 
 and ill-treated the cook's assistant." 
 
 " There ye are. Unless ye're ready to kill that 
 cook, kill the second mate — any one here like to try 
 that? — kill Chips, an' kill the skipper, ye might as 
 well shut up 'bout goin' aft with a kick." 
 
 " I know dat cook," said Peter, the West Indian. 
 
124 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 *' He don' 'member me, but I 'member him. I see 
 um in Havana ; take um three poHcemens put him in 
 jail." 
 
 " Ver' bad temper, zat cook," said Frank ; " zis 
 morning I get ze coffee, and he say I get out or 
 he scald me. What for.'' I do not know." 
 
 " Tell him to soak his head." 
 
 "No, What for,? I take ze coffee — I get out. 
 It is not pleasawnt to be scald." 
 
 " I was in a bark out o' Baltimore," said Swanson, 
 the Swede, " and der cook was a nigger like dis, 
 and he give us all der goot t'ings he steal from der 
 steward ; and den he take care and shake out der 
 weevils from der bread 'fore he soak, and he boil 
 der beef in fresh water, and he steal dat water — " 
 
 "And what'd ye do for the cook?" demanded 
 Sawyer, with a grin. 
 
 " Oh, we bring his coal from der fore peak, and 
 shop his wood, and wash his shirts — " 
 
 " Like a slave," interrupted the disgusted Dick, 
 " D'ye call yourself a man.'' Say, Sawyer, admit- 
 ting that the after-guard runs the watch on deck, 
 does the cook run the watch below in tliese ships ,'' 
 Does the cook do as he likes.'' Hasn't he a boss.'' " 
 
 " Steward." 
 
 " And is the steward responsible for the way our 
 grub is served — responsible for this.''" He pointed 
 to the pan of pea soup. 
 
 " Partly. But I reckon our steward don't dictate 
 much to this cook. Notice him.'' He ain't bigger'n 
 a pint o' cider." 
 
 " Ya-as, it was der steward," said Wagner. " He 
 tell der doctor to give us our whack. Der old man 
 didn't say notting," 
 
 " Well, Him tell yer wot Hi'm goin' to do," said 
 
BARBARISM 125 
 
 the rejuvenated Smith. " Hi'm goin' to bryke his 
 bloomin' fyce in first time Hi catch 'im forrard o' 
 the galley door." 
 
 " I yump on him raineself," added Swanson, ap- 
 provingly. 
 
 " And I'll ' yump ' on you if you do," said Saw- 
 yer. " Steward isn't to blame." 
 
 " Yes, it wass ze steward," said the Frenchman. 
 " He weigh out ze beef and ze pork ; he give ze cook 
 his ordaire. We mus' punish ze steward for zis." 
 
 Pedro, the Spaniard, and Winskel, the Russian, 
 understood English better than they spoke it; and 
 their approving nods and gestures added to the stew- 
 ard's indictment. But before they had formulated 
 a plan of punishment one bell (half-past twelve) 
 sounded on deck, and the3'' went out to relieve the 
 other watch, Dick consistently carrying back to the 
 galley the dinner he had brought — the pork dumped 
 into the pea soup and the full pan fitted into the 
 empty. 
 
 As he passed the carpenter shop, Chips, who stood 
 in the door with a sober countenance, halted him 
 by a gesture. 
 
 " Ye war a weetness, young man, war ye not," 
 he said, " o' that cook's ungovernable temper and 
 unwarranted assault upon me ? Leesten ; hark ye 
 to that. Heard ye ever the like of it.^ He's been 
 a-grindin' an' a-sharpenin' of his knife gone fifteen 
 meenutes ; an' I vara much fear that it's for me." 
 Chips's bilious face took on a serio-comic expression 
 of terror which brought a grin to Dick's ; but he 
 listened, and heard the " wheese, wheech " of a knife 
 grating on a butcher's steel in the galley. 
 
 " He's after you, Chips," he said, as he passed on. 
 " You're done for." The knife-grinding ceased as 
 
126 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 he stopped at the galley door, and the cook ap- 
 peared — with empty hands. 
 
 " You take dat stuff back," he snarled, as h.e 
 looked at the contents of the pan. " What you t'ink 
 I want wi' dat? Dump it overboa'd." 
 
 " Dump it yourself," answered Dick, forgetting 
 the ensign's injunction to avoid friction in his resent- 
 ment of the cook's manner and tone. 
 
 "Wha'yousay? Hey.? You talk lak dat to me.? " 
 
 Dick still held the dishpans in his hands ; and as 
 the villainous black face leaned toward him — the 
 teeth bared, the eyes glittering, and the angry con- 
 tusion in the middle of the forehead rising high out 
 of a network of wrinkles and swollen veins — he 
 obeyed an impulse born of anger, racial hatred, and 
 disgust. He lifted the pans, tilted them, and pushed 
 them bodily toward the evil face before him. They 
 landed squarely, and the cook was deluged with the 
 mess ; it ran down his face and neck and flooded the 
 floor, and as he blindly struck the pans from his 
 head, he slipped and fell. By this time Dick was 
 far away — around the forward corner of the house 
 with his watchmates, receiving instructions from 
 Mr. Jones. It was an exploit that brought a glance 
 of disapproval from the ensign as Dick sped past 
 his woodpile, but joy inexpressible to the dyspeptic 
 carpenter, who had witnessed from his door. As for 
 Dick, he thought only of consequences — which was 
 natural. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 ,ICK worked in the rigging all that afternoon, 
 and, though within shouting distance of Mr. 
 Jones, he was surprised at the absence of any com- 
 
BARBARISM 127 
 
 ment or criticism from the officer, who, throughout 
 the whole watch, spoke harshly to the others. Per- 
 haps this was because he was doing his work prop- 
 erly — perhaps because Mr. Jones and the carpenter 
 ate together at the second cabin table, and at dinner 
 the latter had told how Dick had ducked the cook. 
 He was strongly confirmed in the latter guess when, 
 from his perch aloft, he saw the officer pause at the 
 galley door, where the cook, half in and half out, 
 declaimed to him with violent gesticulation. Dick 
 could not hear, but when the angry black face, shiny 
 with soap, was turned up to him and a grimy black 
 forefinger pointed at him, he had no doubt that he 
 was the subject of conversation. Mr. Jones merely 
 pushed the cook into the galley and went away. 
 
 The storm had passed, and, though the wind was 
 still out of the west, there was no chance for the 
 sea to rise very high so close to land, and the ship, 
 with all sail set, was riding smoothly out to sea. 
 It was famous weather for work. At three bells the 
 watch below was turned out — Ensign Breen going 
 wearily back to his woodpile — and by supper time 
 the two anchors were stowed inboard, the cables sent 
 below, with fenders, mooring chains, gangway davits 
 and grating, and nearly all the chafing gear was aloft 
 and in place. Through it all, Dick, working at sea- 
 manly tasks, looked down on his officer sawing wood. 
 At first he felt an ungenerous pleasure, due to his 
 bitterness of heart ; then he wondered at the ensign's 
 courage in choosing so hard a part, and at his forti- 
 tude in playing it, and at last he felt an honest, 
 manly indignation, based upon his training and re- 
 spect for an officer of the navy. As he came down 
 to his supper at three bells in the first dog-watch, 
 the haggard look in the ensign's face and his slow, 
 
128 IVIASTERS OF MEN 
 
 deliberate movements in piling the wood he had sawed 
 moved Dick to an explosive burst. 
 
 " Say the word, sir," he said between his teeth as 
 he halted before him, " and I'll brain them both with 
 a handspike. I can do it — one at a time." 
 
 " You cannot," answered Breen, wearily. " You 
 might disable one, but the other would shoot you. 
 And if you did succeed — what then.'' Anarchy 
 among the men. That could be quelled with powder 
 and shot; but the final result — you would hang, 
 and I could not save you. Leave it to me. I am 
 working it out, and they do not hang government 
 officers." 
 
 Dick went to supper. There was some villainous 
 tea, sweetened with molasses, which he drank, and 
 a lump of cold, fat, salt pork which neither he nor the 
 rest could touch. The whole watch vented their feel- 
 ings in profanity, and vowed dire vengeance on the 
 after-guard ; but little of it found form or expression 
 except in Smith's avowed determination to " bryke 
 the bloomin' steward's fyce," and they supped as 
 they had dined — on hardtack. 
 
 Work was done for the day when they stepped 
 out at four bells. The other watch had cleared 
 up the deck, and near the fore hatch Brecn's wood- 
 pile showed white and symmetrical in the gathering 
 gloom of the chilly evening. Dick sat upon it, 
 while his watchmates paced the deck under the 
 lee of the weather rail. In a short time the ensign 
 came out munching a biscuit. As he seated himself 
 by Dick's side there came a sound from the galley. 
 " Whecse, wheech." 
 
 "Hear that, Halpin — Billson, I mean?" lie s;iid, 
 wearily. " It's been going all the afternoon. It's 
 for the carpenter, if it isn't for you. What made 
 
BARBARISM 129 
 
 you douse him with the soup? You've made an 
 enemy." 
 
 " And a friend, too, Mr. Breen. Chips liked it, 
 and I'm sure he squared me v/ith the second mate." 
 
 " Please drop the ' mister ' and the ' sir.' Try to 
 remember. I'm a wood-sawyer, as Chips called me, 
 and assistant to a darkey cook. What do you think 
 of my day's work?" Mr. Breen looked proudly — 
 as proudly as an utterly exhausted man may — at his 
 handiwork, and lay down upon it. " To-morrow I 
 must split it," he continued. " Abraham Lincoln 
 was a rail-splitter in his time. Wonder if he ever 
 got so tired as I am? " 
 
 "But why is it necessary?" asked Dick. "You 
 are certainly the best man aboard — able to command 
 the ship, but not used to manual labor. Can't we 
 drill it into the skipper's head? " 
 
 " Go aft and try if you like ; onl}', don't say I 
 sent you. If I could get into that cabin and find 
 a loaded revolver I think I could convince him, but 
 I see no other way. When I'm able to move without 
 pain I shall try it. The skipper stands watch now, 
 and the first mate's confined to his room; so, with 
 the steward asleep, the second mate asleep, and the 
 skipper on deck, there might be a chance to sneak in 
 through the forward companion and get his pistols." 
 
 " Suppose I try it to-night ? " 
 
 " Not to-night. It will need two of us, and to- 
 night I could not find energy to pull a trigger. 
 Then, too, you must not take the initiative. You 
 are a sailor, and most maritime law is devised for 
 ycur punishment. I am an officer, and to a large 
 extent exempt. I have the government behind me." 
 
 " What kind of a crowd have you in your watch," 
 asked Dick, after a moment's thought. 
 
130 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " No two alike — all different : Dutch, Swede, 
 Dago, Finn, and several unclassified. I'm the only 
 American." 
 
 " My side is the same, excepting Sawyer. He's 
 a Jerseyman.'* 
 
 *' You're not thinking of organizing a mutiny, are 
 you.'* That won't do. Think of the sensation and 
 the newspaper accounts. Nineteen murderous scoun- 
 drels hanged for mutiny. Let me do it alone. It'll 
 be merely a naval officer taking charge of a ship 
 and sailing her to port. But who is Sawyer.'' The 
 man who was called up on the poop this morning.'* " 
 
 " Yes. He's a good fellow and believes as you 
 do. Says it'll make things worse to kick." 
 
 " He's a man I'd like to know. You're too suc- 
 cessful with your fists, Billson, properly to appreciate 
 finesse, or to conduct a successful mutiny. Go get 
 Sawyer and introducr^ me. I'm too tired to seek 
 him." 
 
 Dick went among the men and returned with 
 Sawyer. 
 
 " Excuse my not rising," said the unsubdued 
 Breen. " I'm a little out of form, and the saw wants 
 sharpening." 
 
 " An' it's a d — shame, sir," answered Sawyer, 
 sitting down on the hatch and speaking softly. " If 
 ye could only make tlic skipper believe ye, it'd be 
 all right. He wouldn't dare haze ye — oh, I know 
 an officer, sir [Breen had started up] ; I put in tliree 
 years in the service ; I could tell by ycr walk, and 
 yer voice, and the way ye carried yerself, an' when 
 the skipper twitted ye about makin' a bluff, I knew 
 for sure." 
 
 " Well," said Breen, coldly, " I hope you have 
 kept your knowledge to yourself." 
 
BARBARISM 131 
 
 " No fear, sir ; I've kept still, an' mean to ; and 
 if I can be of any service to ye aboard this hell- 
 driver ye can call on me." 
 
 " Surely," interitipted Dick, " the three of us 
 could take charge — " 
 
 " No, no," said the ensign, impatiently. " Saw- 
 yer, how about this grub? Shall we get such stuff 
 right along? " 
 
 " Until we find out and give up the man that 
 crippled the mate. We're on government whack." 
 
 " The old navy war ration, I suppose ; but I've 
 passed upon and condemned naval stores much better 
 than these." 
 
 " True enough, sir. But a good many shipowners 
 an' skippers buy up condemned navy stores. They're 
 always used up, somewhere." 
 
 " And I suppose we must find out the man who 
 assaulted the first mate before we have a change," 
 said Breen, musingly. " What will the skipper do 
 to him?" 
 
 " Oh, he'll be ironed, of course, an' perhaps 
 thumped a little; but he's sure to be triced up by 
 the wrists for eight or ten hours until he confesses, 
 or begs off, or weakens somehow." 
 
 " Sawyer," and Breen's voice hardened, " do you 
 know anything about the geography of the cabin — 
 how the rooms are laid out ? " 
 
 " Why, yes ; they're all about alike in these ships. 
 The two mates' rooms are each side the forrard pas- 
 sage that the companion opens into. Next aft is 
 the dinin' room, with staterooms and storerooms 
 along the sides, and next is the after cabin where 
 the old man lives. His sleepin' room's in one corner, 
 bathroom in the other. The after companion stairs 
 is between 'em." 
 
132 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " Where does the steward sleep ? " 
 
 " In one o' the rooms off the dinin' room." 
 
 " And the carpenter and cook? " 
 
 " Chips has a little kennel ofr his shop between 
 the two forecastles. The cook has a room off his 
 galley." 
 
 " Then, to get into the after cabin at night when 
 the captain has the deck, a man will have to enter 
 by the forward door, pass the doors of two officers, 
 either of whom might be awake, and pass the room 
 of the steward, who also might be wakeful? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Sawyer, drop the ' sir ' before you form the 
 habit. I'm trying to break off Billson, here. Where 
 would the skipper be likely to keep his pistols? " 
 
 " In his pockets until the crew get settled down ; 
 then in any good, dry place, I s'pose. It's a risky 
 thing you're thinkin' of. He'd be apt to shoot you 
 if he caught you in his cabin at night." 
 
 " Unless I shot him first. It all depends on those 
 pistols. Well, we'll see. Who is this ? " 
 
 A man had come forward on the lee side, and, 
 approaching them, now peered into their faces. He 
 was a small-sized man of quick, nervous movements, 
 but evidently an American. 
 
 " What's wrong, Steward ? " asked Sawyer. 
 
 " I reckon you're the man. I'm looking for 
 the man that talked back this morning. You 
 him?" 
 
 " Reckon I'm him." 
 
 " Captain Bilker wants to see you in the cabin." 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 *' I don't know." 
 
 " All riglit." Sawyer arose from the hatch. " I 
 may come forrard feet first," he said to Breen, " an' 
 
BARBARISM 133 
 
 I may go in irons, but — take care o' yerselves, both 
 o' ye." 
 
 He took the lee side in going aft, but the steward, 
 who had come this way, and doubtless found it 
 draughty, sought the shelter of the weather rail in 
 returning. He blundered into a group of Dick's 
 watchmates, pacing up and down in the darkness, and 
 then became invisible to the two on the woodpile. 
 But his presence in the crowd was attested by his 
 choked appeals for help, by the stamping and shuf- 
 fling of feet, the muttered oaths and imprecations, 
 and the thuds and smacks of fists and open hands. 
 At last, just as Dick and Breen understood and 
 resolved to interfere, he shot out of the crowd, fol- 
 lowed by a whirling belaying-pin, dashed past them 
 across the fore hatch, and with head lowered and 
 elbows elevated sped aft on the lee side. 
 
 " That's because he's a small-sized man," said 
 Dick, " They blame him for the way the cook 
 served the grub. I wonder if they would tackle the 
 cook, or the skipper." 
 
 " Hardly, I think," answered Breen, absently. 
 He remained silent a moment, then said : " He 
 didn't appear to be injured; but what would 
 happen if they disabled him? Who would do his 
 work?" 
 
 " Cook, I suppose." 
 
 " Don't think so — and his own, too ; if one could 
 do both they wouldn't carry two. If the steward 
 was put out of commission, Billson, some one would 
 take his place in the cabin. I am the likeliest man." 
 
 ^' Want me to do it?" asked Dick, surmising the 
 drift of Breen's thoughts. 
 
 " No, no — by all means — no. Only as a last re- 
 sort. He seems a harmless man. I was only think- 
 
134 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 ing — and — I want only the run of that cabin for 
 ten minutes." 
 
 "How about the cook? He's apt to make some 
 kind of demonstration soon on account of the soup. 
 Suppose I put him out; it'll be a pleasant job." 
 
 " And then you'll go in irons. No, I need you 
 intact and free. If we could get some one else to 
 doit.?" 
 
 "Chips?" 
 
 " I've no love for him. He was rather harsh and 
 unkind to-day. I wouldn't sorrow much to see him 
 ironed for killing the cook, or the cook ironed for 
 killing him. However, it won't be necessary. The 
 skipper must stand watch until the mate recovers, 
 and when the pain is out of my bones I mean to 
 sneak into his cabin. I'm in his watch, you sec, and 
 it'll be easy on a dark night, along toward morning, 
 when he is busy on deck, and the others are sound 
 asleep." 
 
 Sawyer came round the corner of the house and 
 joined them. 
 
 " Going aft, third mate," he said. " The skipper 
 don't want to stand watch. But I wouldn't tell him 
 who the man was." 
 
 " Do you know? " asked Breen. 
 
 " Yes ; skipper explained how he broke the mate's 
 arm. Mate turned out and clinched him in the dark- 
 ness, but the man broke away; then the mate struck 
 out at his face, and the man ducked and canght his 
 wrists in both hands, then, quickcr'n liglitnin', he 
 turned and brought the arm, elbow down, over his 
 own shoulder, an' hove down on it. It's a trick known 
 to trained fighters, an' it's also known in the navy. 
 The man was no thief; he only wanted the mate's 
 pistol, not knowin' that he went to bed with it." 
 
BARBARISM 135 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 SA'VVYER turned and entered the forecastle, 
 while Dick furtively glanced at the slim, grace- 
 ful figure of his officer. As events crowded one upon 
 another, he was being forced to a revision of opinion 
 regarding his smooth-voiced and gentlemanly su- 
 perior — this courageous and resourceful man of ac- 
 tion. He was beginning to admire him, almost to 
 like him. 
 
 " It was a foul trick," said the ensign at last ; 
 " but what could I do ? He was a large, heavy man. 
 I had suffered brutal treatment on deck, and feared 
 for my life. We were taught that trick sub rosa, at 
 Annapolis, as a resource in street riots, when firing 
 was forbidden." 
 
 " You did right," answered Dick, vehemently. 
 " I've practiced it, but have never been forced to 
 use it. I will, though, if necessary ; and then, too, 
 if you'd got the gun, you'd have shot him and the 
 other two, before the thing was over. There's no 
 fair play needed aboard this ship. It isn't under- 
 stood." 
 
 " I wonder what use Sawyer will make of his knowl- 
 edge, now that he is aft.^* " 
 
 As though to answer this. Sawyer came out, 
 dumped his clothes-bag on the hatch, and joined 
 them. 
 
 " Don't fear that I'll give you away," he said. 
 " I've sworn I don't know anythin' about it, an' 
 that'll stand. An' I want to say that I think ye took 
 the best plan in playin' flunkey. If jj^e'd acted yer 
 natural self, an' shown yer knowledge o' ships an' 
 sailorizin', ye might ha' convinced the skipper — 
 
136 MASTERS OF IMEN 
 
 when it'd be too late ; for, havin' hazed ye an' kicked 
 ye around, an' knowin' that as an officer o' the navy 
 ye could make him sweat for it, he'd think the safest 
 plan for him'd be to kill ye with work, somehow, or 
 shoot ye as a mutineer, an' put ye in the log under 
 the name ye've got on the articles, or have ye 
 knocked overboard some dark night." 
 
 *' That's the way I reasoned," said Breen. 
 
 " Yes, an' ye reasoned right. It's well understood 
 that a gentleman, shanghaied in a Yankee ship, sel- 
 dom finishes the passage; but as a harmless servant 
 man, ye'd have a chance out o' yer pure innocence. 
 It's best as it is. Now, ye'll be in my watch, an' 
 I'll make it easy for ye; but understand, after I've 
 gone aft wi' that bag, I'm an officer, and can't talk 
 with ye, an' I've got to forget all I've said an' 
 listened to, an' if I caught ye in the cabin I'd 
 have to put ye out. Just the same — good luck 
 to ye." 
 
 He shouldered his bag and started aft, but turned 
 and rejoined them. 
 
 " And, of course, ye'll understand," he said to 
 Breen, " that my believin' in yer bein' a navy officer 
 won't help ye any more now than if I stayed forrard. 
 I might convince the skipper 'fore long. So can you 
 'fore long; but it'll be the worst thing that could 
 happen after what has happened. Understand. 
 You'll die — somehow; and yer dcath'll go into the 
 skipper's official log as accidental, and one o' the 
 mates'll witness the entry. That's evidence in court. 
 I can swear only to my belief, after yer dead, and 
 that won't help ye. But," he added, significantly, 
 " I'll have the lower bunk in Mr. Jones's room." 
 Then he was gone. 
 
 " There will be somebody each side of that pas- 
 
BARBARISM 137 
 
 sage, continually," said Breen. " The thing is boiling 
 down." 
 
 From the darkness in the weather alley came the 
 tall figure of the carpenter. Pie halted, listened a 
 moment, then spying Dick and Breen at the woodpile, 
 came down to them, uttering a warning, " Sh-h-h-h." 
 Over the sound of the wind and sea could be heard 
 the scraping of a knife on a steel. 
 
 " Hear it, lad," he said earnestly to Dick. " Hear 
 the dark beast a-grindin' his knife? Is it for me 
 or you? Ye soaked him weel wi' the soup, an' I'm 
 thinkin' he's a mon to be watchful of. Losh, but it 
 fair maks me nairvous — to hear that sound." 
 
 " It's for you," said Breen, guilefully. " It's for 
 you. He told me he would kill you. Oh, he isn't 
 afraid of you ! " 
 
 " Get ye oot o' this, ye time-sairvin' flunkey," said 
 Chips, angrily raising his open hand; and Breen 
 moved quickly — with a billet of wood in his grasp. 
 
 " He says," persisted Breen, from a safe distance, 
 " that he won't allow you or any one else to lay 
 hands on me again. He says you're nothing but a 
 whitewashed Irishman — " 
 
 " Hush, ye bag o' bad teedings," roared the exas- 
 perated Chips. "An Irishman am I? Me, a Mac- 
 Pherson o' the hill clans ! Oot o' my sight, or I'll — " 
 
 He advanced toward the retreating ensign, but 
 Dick, grinning in the darkness, placed himself in 
 the way. 
 
 " Never mind that," he said. " The question is : 
 what about the cook? He's sharpening that knife for 
 one of us — perhaps both. What do you think we 
 ought to do? " 
 
 " I canna tell," was the mournful reply. " It's 
 a mortal sin to hurt a ship's cook. He's a sacred 
 
138 MASTERS OF :\IEN 
 
 pairson. Did ye no hear the second mate call me 
 doon the day? But I can try the effect o' moral 
 suasion. I'll e'en put an eedge on the broad-axe." 
 
 He left them, and soon from the carpenter shop 
 came to their ears the rhythmical thumping of a 
 grindstone footboard, and the steady grating of cold 
 steel pressed against its wet surface. It drowned 
 the " wheese, wheech " from the galley. 
 
 " The man is frightened," said Dick, as the ensign 
 rejoined him. 
 
 " So much the better," replied Breen, depositing 
 his billet on the pile ; " he is more likely to act. Keep 
 it up, and I'll stir up the darkey. There goes eight 
 bells — four hours more for me." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 WHEN the port watch turned out at midnight 
 they found but a gentle whisper telling of 
 the gale of the preceding night, and a cold, full moon 
 overhanging the southern horizon. By a prear- 
 ranged schedule among the men, it was Dick's trick 
 at the wheel from twelve until two; and, when the 
 other watch had been dismissed, he went aft with a 
 few misgivings, but thankful that wind and sea were 
 easy. Pie had learned as much about steering as a 
 man-of-war's-man may — which, beyond the tech- 
 nique, is very little — but had not acquired the nice 
 " sense of pressure " which enables a trained mer- 
 chant sailor to steer almost by feeling alone. After 
 repeating the course given by his predecessor, and 
 grinding the wheel over and back a few times with 
 unnecessary vigor, he gradually brought the ship 
 under command ; and, as his nerves were now in good 
 
BARBARISM 139 
 
 order, and his judgment of the best, he steered a 
 course which called forth no objurgations from Mr. 
 Jones, though he frequently peered into the binnacle, 
 and as often turned to look Dick squarely in the 
 face. Then he would resume his pacing back and 
 forth on the quarter-deck forward of the after house. 
 Twice before two bells had struck he stepped into the 
 companion out of sight, and when next he appeared 
 at the binnacle Dick smelled liquor on his breath. 
 This time he spoke, thickly but good-humoredly. 
 
 " What's up 'tween you and the cook-f* " he asked. 
 
 " Nothing, sir ; I lost my head and doused him 
 before I thought." 
 
 "What'dhedo.f" 
 
 " Only made faces, sir ; but he looked like mur- 
 der, and I let go." 
 
 "Ye doused him well — 'cordin' to what Chips 
 says," chuckled Pig. " But look out for him ; lie's 
 a bad proposition ; knifed two last voyage." 
 
 "Then you've been shipmates before, sir?" said 
 Dick, hardly knowing what attitude to assume. 
 
 " For three years — in fact, all my goin' to sea. 
 I ain't been long at it," said Pig, proudly. " I licked 
 a grown man first voyage, and I took the fight out 
 o' that nigger second voyage, an' he's afraid to look 
 sideways at me now; and I licked the second mate 
 last passage home. That's how I step into his place. 
 That's what a skipper wants in an officer. Learn 
 all ye like to — be the best seaman on earth, and 'less 
 ye can thump men, and win out every time, yer no 
 good aft." 
 
 " So I should think, sir," answered Dick, humbly ; 
 " but I don't think I'd do. I can work, but I can't 
 fight. Never could, sir." 
 
 " Well, ye want to brace up and learn to box, 
 
140 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 and — another thing, stick to yer skipper, and get 
 navigation. I'm halfway into it now. No good 
 pulhn' ropes all yer life. What part o' the States 
 ye come from ? " 
 
 " New York state, sir — Port Jervis," said Dick, 
 remembering his geography. 
 
 " I'm a York state boy myself," said Pig. 
 " From Allville. Say, you do look mighty like a 
 jigger I went to school with — Redhead Halpin; but 
 your hair ain't red. He shipped in the navy and 
 never was heard from up to when I lit out." 
 
 " Think he's dead, sir.'' " Dick was humanly anx- 
 ious to hear of himself. 
 
 " Hope so. He was a mean sucker for the size 
 of him. Give away a whole raft o' fellers and got 
 'em into trouble with the police. I wasn't in it, but 
 I was one o' the gang that done him up for it. Thea 
 he got fired out o' school for stealin', and skipped 
 the town." 
 
 " Oh, a thief, sir, too," said Dick. 
 
 " Well, no, to give the devil his due, he wasn't 
 — at least, he didn't take the boodle in this case, 
 but it looked that way. It came out months after 
 he skipped, little by little; he was tryin' to shield 
 the real thief, who was a pet brother o' the gal he 
 was stuck on — see.'' And he got into his boots in the 
 mix. The gal got dead on to it somehow — nobody 
 ever knew what happened — and made her brother 
 own up. Then his dad took 'cm both out o' 
 school — " 
 
 " Did Mabel do that.? " burst in Dick. 
 
 " He}' ! Say ' sir ' when ye talk to me. IMabel, 
 is it.? Who said anythin' 'bout ]\Iabcl.? Hey? 
 That's the gal's name right enough, but I'd never ha' 
 'membered it, without hearin' it. Mabel, hey? I'm 
 
BARBARISM 141 
 
 dead on to you, Dick Halpin, and I'll make you 
 crawl 'fore I'm done wi' ye. What game ye up to, 
 anyhow ? Hey ? " 
 
 *' No game, sir," answered the flustered Dick. 
 " I'm only listening to what you say about other 
 people. I don't know them. How could I.'' " 
 
 " How could ye? D'ye mean to say yer not Red 
 Halpin.'* How'd ye know that gal's name.'' " 
 
 " You spoke the name, sir," said Dick, gathering 
 his wits, " and, not knowing her other name, or any- 
 thing about her, I repeated it. I was interested. 
 Most girls wouldn't have done that." 
 
 " I b'lieve yer lyin'. How could I speak her name 
 when I'd forgotten it,? Hey.'' " 
 
 " You must have remembered subconsciously, sir. 
 I've read about such things. Sometimes we can't re- 
 member things when we try, but they come to us, 
 and then we forget again. You've noticed that, sir. 
 I'm not your man, Mr. Jones. My name is Billson, 
 and I never heard of these people before." 
 
 "Well, it's mighty queer, that's what I say; and 
 if I find out yer lyin' to me, I'll make it so hot for 
 ye that ye'll be glad to git overboard to cool off." 
 
 He moved down toward the lee-rail and met the 
 captain stepping out of the after companion. 
 
 " Now, look here, Mr. Jones," said the latter, 
 sternly, " I want you to understand one thing 'fore 
 you're a minute older. I've listened to this pow-wow, 
 and let it go on, wonderin' when you'd stop. If you 
 don't know any more than to talk to the man at the 
 wheel, you'd better go 'fore the mast again till you 
 do know somethin'. You hear me? Don't let me 
 speak to you again on this subject." 
 
 " All right, sir," answered the officer, sulkily, and 
 the captain stepped up to windward and looked aloft. 
 
142 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 Then he looted at the compass. Dick had the ship 
 straight on her course, though if the captain had 
 looked five seconds earlier or five seconds later, he 
 would have seen her off a full point. Tranquillity of 
 mind is of first importance in good helmsmanship. 
 
 " I think, Mr. Jones," said the captain, dryly, as 
 he passed Pig on his way to the companion, " that 
 your yards will stand a little attention." Then he 
 stepped down, and Pig faced Dick. 
 
 " I get this on your account, d — ye," he growled. 
 " All right. Watch out." 
 
 Then he went forward, bawling " weather main 
 brace," and Dick tried to adjust himself to the new 
 conditions ; but during the rest of his trick and the 
 remaining two hours of the watch, which he spent in 
 solitude under the topgallant forecastle, he had not 
 succeeded. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 AT eight bells Dick mustered aft to be counted 
 >■ with the rest — as is customary at the change 
 of night-watches — and when his watchmatcs had 
 turned in, he again souglit his hiding-place; for he 
 could not sleep even though the others had ceased to 
 discuss a project propounded among them wliilc he 
 was at the wheel. He had felt no interest when in- 
 formed of it, for he could think of nothing but his 
 changed position. 
 
 Pig's statement gave a new coloring to each action 
 of Mabel Arthur and to each of his own. She knew, 
 and had known from nearly the beginning, that he 
 was innocent. Her attitude had held nothing of pity 
 or contempt, and her strange friendliness and interest 
 in him, which he had believed arose from these two 
 
BARBARISM 143 
 
 emotions, would now admit of a worthier animus. 
 Dimly to his mind came the ensign's mention on 
 board the Vermont of her intercession in his behalf, 
 of all she had done for him, and he started out on 
 deck, to call him from the group at the port fore- 
 castle door, and ask a repetition and verification ; but 
 there came to him the memory of Bessie's letter and 
 the mention of a diamond ring. He must not cross- 
 question a man about his fiancee ; so he decided to say 
 and do nothing at all. Breen may have heard of 
 his early disgrace; but it was certainly of small im- 
 portance to him, and an explanation might involve 
 branding the ensign's future brother-in-law as a thief. 
 He realized that this point of view was at variance 
 with his usual habit of mind, and felt the better for 
 it. He was uplifted, and his love for Mabel, and his 
 reserve store of self-respect, held down through the 
 3'ears by the belief in his bad reputation, now arose 
 and dominated his hatred of her brother and his jeal- 
 ousy of Breen. 
 
 " Perhaps," he mused, " this is the way a fellow 
 must feel about such things to be a gentleman — 
 worthy of her, for instance. Perhaps if I practiced 
 feeling this way, I might stop seeing red when things 
 go wrong." 
 
 In the latter speculation he was confirmed by 
 Breen, whom he sought to tell about Pig's increased 
 suspicion and promise of a hot atmosphere. Breen, 
 sleepy, cross, and sore in his joints, unsympathetic- 
 ally ordered him to play his part — to submit meekly 
 to abuse, oral and physical, in order that he could 
 be at hand when wanted, instead of down below in 
 irons. 
 
 " It'll do you good," he concluded, " to be thumped 
 around a little when you can't thump back. It'll 
 
144 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 develop your self-control — and, by the way, I sup- 
 pose you know that both watches are going aft at 
 breakfast time to protest against the menu. Keep 
 in the background, and let the others talk. They're 
 all brave enough for talking." 
 
 Dick turned in, and, being young, lost only an 
 hour in getting to sleep. He awakened at seven 
 bells with the rest, and, as agreed upon among them, 
 ate no breakfast, the object being to preserve it 
 intact for the official exhibition at eight bells, when 
 the other watch could join them. There was much 
 talking about past experiences of the kind in which 
 victory had come to the narrators ; but when eight 
 bells had struck, they emptied their pipes and arose 
 to their feet with more or less of anxiety showing 
 in each face. Smith, true to his word, bore the pan 
 of " cracker hash " with a clean spoon resting on 
 top, and Wagner carried the coffee-pot and a tin 
 pannikin. They trooped out, waited at the main 
 hatch until the other watch had obtained their break- 
 fast from the starboard galley door, then marched 
 aft in a body, and Smith, the spokesman, told Saw- 
 yer at the break of the poop that they would like 
 to see the captain. Sawyer nodded warningly, and 
 entered the forward companion. Wlien he came out 
 he carried a double-barreled shotgun, and following 
 him were Captain Bilker and Mr. Jones, each with 
 the same burden, and a tall, mild-eyed, handsome 
 man with side-whiskers, who carried his right arm 
 in a sling, and whom Dick had no trouble in identify- 
 ing as Mr. Tliorpc, the first mate. This man lickl 
 a marlinespike in his left hand. As they ranged up 
 at the monkey-rail and looked down on the men, the 
 carpenter stole past tlicni and mounted the poop 
 steps with his broad-axe on his shoulder, the cook 
 
BARBARISM 145 
 
 followed with his carving-knife, taking a position at 
 the opposite end of the line from the carpenter, and 
 the steward emerged from the after companion with 
 a repeating rifle. Precautionary discipline was per- 
 fect. At the first sign of protest seven armed men 
 were prepared to listen, and the cook and carpenter 
 glared down on the sea slaves with no irrelevant side 
 glances at each other. 
 
 " Well, men," said Captain Bilker, as with easy 
 carelessness he rested his gun on the monkey-rail 
 with its two muzzles looking down on them, " what 
 d'ye want .'' " 
 
 " Just this, sir," said Smith, stepping out of the 
 group with his pan of hash. " We hain't lookin' for 
 trouble, an' we don't want to say nothin' that'll bring 
 hon hany shootin', sir; but we just want to hask you, 
 sir, if this is the right kind o' chuck to feed men on, 
 sir. We hain't got nothin' to say 'bout hit's bein' 
 government whack, 'cause that's hall we sign for; 
 but we don't sign for maggots, sir — they're not in 
 the scale o' provisions, sir." 
 
 " No," remarked the captain, dryly, " they're not ; 
 you're getting them extra — good fresh meat over 
 and above yer 'lowance. Mr. Thorpe," he said, turn- 
 ing to the first mate, " there's the crew ; d'ye recog- 
 nize yer man ? " 
 
 " I do," answered the officer, a peculiar shine, or 
 sparkle, in his blue eyes ; " that outlaw sneakin' be- 
 hind the others back there." He raised the marline- 
 spike unsteadily in his left hand, and the men below 
 separated and fell back. Then the marlinespike 
 whirled among them, and Dick Halpin fell to the deck. 
 
 " By heaven, sir," roared Sawyer, " if this ain't 
 pure murder I never heard of it. That man wasn't 
 turned to till four o'clock that morning. He was 
 
146 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 doped, an' in his bunk, till Mr. Jones pulled him 
 out." 
 
 " Shut up," thundered the captain. " Hush, or 
 I'll put ye 'fore the mast again. Sure o' yer man, 
 Mr. Thorpe.?" 
 
 " Sure of him, sir.? " said the mate, with a smile; 
 *' of course I am. Look at the size of him. Is there 
 any one else in that pack able to break my arm.? 
 And I know his face and shape. I could see him well 
 enough." 
 
 " You're wrong," vociferated Sawyer, angrily ; 
 " you're dead wrong, Mr. Thorpe. That man was 
 stupid in his bunk all through that watch. Mr. 
 Jones'll bear me out. He turned him to at eight 
 bells, too dopy to know his name. Hold on, sir, 
 don't point that thing my way ! " Mr. Thorpe had 
 drawn and was nervously raising a pistol as he 
 looked at Sawyer, but the enraged third mate leveled 
 the shotgun, and the pistol came down. Still holding 
 the gun horizontal. Sawyer backed toward the rail 
 and spoke to the second mate, while down on deck 
 Breen helped Dick to his feet. 
 
 " Isn't that so, Mr. Jones? " 
 
 It may have been the menace of the shotgun, or 
 it may have been Pig's surprise and shock at the 
 sudden felling of a man before his eyes; for he was 
 young yet. He answered truthfully. 
 
 " Yes, he couldn't be waked up till eight bells. I 
 tried twice, and I know that. It was some one else, 
 Mr. Thorpe." 
 
 " Enough o' this," said the captain, impatiently. 
 " Take that man forrard. Mr. Sawyer, lower tliat 
 gun, and remember where you are. I make all 'low- 
 anccs for mistakes o' judgment, but — put that gun 
 down. Yer on my poop deck." 
 
BARBARISM 147 
 
 " All right, sir, but I couldn't keep quiet under 
 this." 
 
 " Now, men," said the captain to those below him, 
 " take that fellar forrard, and take yer grub with 
 you. I don't want to see it or smell it. Ye'U get 
 no different till ye give up the man that crippled my 
 first mate." 
 
 " 'Ow can we do that, sir.? " replied Smith. " He 
 won't give 'isself hup, knowin' he's likely to be killed. 
 An' there's no bother way to find bout. Hand we 
 can't eat this stuff, sir." 
 
 " That'll do ! Go forrard." 
 
 " Hall right, sir, we'll go ; but can we hask you, 
 sir, hif you'll make the cook shake out the maggots 
 'fore he cooks up the 'ash.? " 
 
 It was a reasonable and a respectful request, and 
 possibly Captain Bilker was impressed by it. He 
 hesitated a moment, then turned to the steward. 
 
 " From this on," he said, " serve the men from the 
 new stores ; serve 'em the allowance, and not an 
 ounce more. Now, men," he added, facing them 
 again, " I'm givin' you new grub for a while — one 
 month, we'll say ; and if you don't produce that mur- 
 derin' thief by then, back you go to what ye've been 
 gettin' ; but if you do, it's full and plenty." 
 
 " Thank ye, sir; we'll do what we can." 
 
 They went forward, assisting Dick. He was weak 
 in the legs, somewhat dazed from shock and head- 
 ache, and his face was streaked with blood from a 
 furrow in his scalp where the point of the spike had 
 plowed. 
 
148 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 *' AM I a slave, or a convict?" he asked weakly, 
 Jr\ as he sat on a chest a little later. Brecn was 
 bandaging the wound made by the marlinespike, and 
 they were alone in the port forecastle, Dick's watch 
 being at work on deck, Breen's in the other forecastle, 
 trying to eat the breakfast. " Isn't there any law 
 for these tilings.'' " 
 
 " Plenty of law, but little justice," answered Breen, 
 with a hard look on his face. " Thank your good 
 luck that you didn't get it between the eyes. You 
 know something now about the kind of men they are, 
 don't you.'' The mate thought nothing of flooring 
 you on mere suspicion, and if he had killed 3'ou, 
 would have thought as little. Same with the skipper. 
 Very well. When we get our chance we'll shoot to 
 kill; it's the only way. Hush — here's somebod}'." 
 
 The burly form of the second mate darkened the 
 door, and his unpleasant voice said : — 
 
 " Come now, come now, goin' to soger all the 
 watch ? Come out o' that, and turn to." 
 
 " Just a minute, sir," answered Breen, with as- 
 sumed cheerfulness. " I'll have him ready when I've 
 knotted these ends. He's lost blood, and he's weak. 
 
 sir. 
 
 " What guff ha' you got about it ? " Mr. Jones 
 stepped in, and advanced upon them. " Don't gi' 
 me any o' yer slack." He struck open-handed at 
 the ensign's face with force enough to stretch him 
 out on the floor ; then he collared Dick, and held him 
 while Breen scrambled to his feet. The play of emo- 
 tion on Breen's disfigured face was unpleasant to 
 sec, and he looked wildly about him. Perhaps it was 
 
BARBARISM 149 
 
 well for all three that there was not a knife, club, or 
 implement in the forecastle. He looked Mr. Jones 
 squarely in the eyes for a moment, then looked down, 
 and said quietly, but with the same tremble of rage 
 in his voice that had marked his protest to the car- 
 penter : — 
 
 " I was only stopping the blood, sir, so that he 
 wouldn't get weaker." 
 
 *' Dry up, ye farmer ! " 
 
 He marched Dick at arm's length to the door, and 
 actually kicked him through it. Dick fell in a heap 
 without, and as he painfully sat up, then stood up, 
 he saw, faint and bloodless as he was, the old reddish 
 tinge creep over the sky, the deck, and the white 
 paint work about him — not so brilliant as of old, 
 but strong enough to remind him of his curse of 
 temper; then he thought of Breen's mastery of him- 
 self a moment before, and by a supreme effort of will 
 brought himself back to sanity. The paint became 
 white, the sky gray, and the deck the dingy hue it 
 had worn. But the effort of will, in his weakened 
 condition, cost him his senses, and he fell in a 
 faint. 
 
 When he recovered consciousness, he was in the 
 same spot on the deck, and above him stood Mr. 
 Jones with an empty bucket, while Smith was perched 
 on the rail, with a draw-bucket. 
 
 " That'll do the water," said the officer, and Smith 
 came down. " Now, then," he roared at Dick, " goin' 
 to get up and turn to, or d'ye want to be tucked in 
 yer cradle and rocked to sleep? " 
 
 Dick staggered to his feet and managed to remain 
 erect ; but he could not speak, and things looked hazy 
 and indistinct to him, the second mate's huge figure 
 being nothing but an opaque blur. Then a second 
 
150 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 blur moved into his imperfect circle of vision, and he 
 heard the captain's voice. 
 
 " You blunderin' fool," it said. " You all-fired 
 senseless idiot, are you tryin' to kill this man, jess 
 'cause ye know how.'' Don't ye know when a man's 
 had enough, or will ye ever know anythin'. I've 
 watched ye for the last ten minutes, bullyraggin' a 
 man already under control, with the rest o' yer watch 
 sogerin' around doin' nothin' and everythin' shakin' 
 aloft. 'Tend to yer knittin' now, or I'll have no more 
 o' ye." 
 
 Mr. Jones took a hurried look around and aloft, 
 and left them to brace the yards for a shift of wind. 
 Captain Bilker regarded Dick, who, dripping wet 
 and shivering, with face pale as death, and his 
 bandage resting on one shoulder, was holding to the 
 pin-rail for support. 
 
 " What's yer name? " he asked. 
 
 " R-R-R-ichard Halpin — R-Richard Billson, sir, 
 — Richard H. Billson, sir." 
 
 " Well, Richard H. Billson, are you the man that 
 crippled my mate.'^ " 
 
 " N-no, sir," stuttered Dick. " I never saw him 
 before this morning. I was in my bunk when that 
 happened, sir." 
 
 " How bad are ye hurt? " 
 
 " Scalp wound, Capt'n ; but I'm weak — I can 
 hardly stand up." 
 
 " Go to yer bunk. Peel off them wet clothes, and 
 I'll send the steward forrard wi' some medicine to 
 keep down the fever. Take it, and don't turn to till 
 ye feel like it. Yer no lazy man's clerk, I can sec, 
 and I don't want any sick men 'board my ship." 
 
 " Thank you, sir." 
 
 Brcen, who had remained awake, assisted him into 
 
 \ 
 
BARBARISM 151 
 
 his bunk, and the steward came forward with hot 
 water, bandages, and medicine, and ministered unto 
 him, with the result that he slept through three 
 watches, awaking at supper time, still weak and 
 nerveless, but clear-headed and with appetite to enjoy 
 his supper. It was cold boiled beef and hard bread; 
 but not being more than a year old, it was palatable. 
 
 He found Breen sitting on the fore hatch staring 
 into the blackness under the topgallant forecastle. 
 He inquired of Dick's health, then pointed under the 
 forecastle. 
 
 " See it.P " he said. " Split it all this afternoon, 
 and piled it — all by myself, too. I'm proud of it — 
 I really am. I like to look at it. It fascinates me. 
 And the cook gave me a piece of pie. Here's your 
 half." He handed Dick a small wedge wrapped in 
 paper. 
 
 " No, no," protested Dick, with a laugh. " It's 
 good, of course, but I'm filled up, and anyhow, I'm 
 more accustomed to junk and hardtack than you." 
 
 " Take it," commanded Breen, sternly. " Do you 
 think I've resisted the temptation to bolt the whole 
 piece for a whole hour, to weaken now.'' Eat it. 
 Consider it an order." 
 
 Dick ate the pie. 
 
 " I thought for a moment, this morning," con- 
 tinued Breen, " that I couldn't hold my luff — when 
 that brute hit me. But I did ; we've got to submit and 
 be ready to act together." 
 
 " How did it affect you? " asked Dick. " Do you 
 ever see red when you're angry.'' " 
 
 "No, do you?" 
 
 " Verj' often. I did this morning, when he booted 
 me out ; but I was too far gone to do anything. I 
 generally go crazy." 
 
152 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " Bad. That's when men do murder. A weakness 
 of the vascular system — I heard a lecture about it 
 once — certain nerve centers fail to act, and there's 
 a rush of blood. But it's all under control of the 
 will. Just hold your temper." 
 
 " I did try this morning, and it didn't last but 
 a second or so. But I dropped." 
 
 " Keep on trying. You've got to, anyway ; and 
 it'll do you good. You're too good a man to hang." 
 
 " What do you think of the skipper's action in 
 sending me below.'' He can't be a whole brute." 
 
 " No man is a whole villain or a whole brute. 
 We're mixtures. It was good business to give you 
 a chance; but he'll kick j^ou, himself, if he thinks it 
 necessary, just as often as would your friend Pig. 
 He kicked me right off the poop ; but perhaps he 
 wouldn't waste any kicks that were needed else- 
 where." 
 
 " And what do you think of the cook. Is he sorry 
 for you .'* " 
 
 " Not a bit — he's a corruptionist. He's as nervous 
 as Chips — and ten times more of a cutthroat and 
 coward. That pie was a bribe. I'm to watch the 
 carpenter and post the cook about his intentions. 
 Begun already. Told him Chips was sharpening his 
 broad-axe and means to split his head open." 
 
 *' He can't have any love for me. I'm surprised 
 that he hasn't made some kind of a break my way. 
 What do you want me to do if he comes for me with 
 that knife.?" 
 
 " Run. Your legs arc long. But I think he won't 
 bother you. He's a spiteful devil, with murder all 
 through him; yet he's a rank coward, and when I 
 told him you'd killed a colored man in Charleston, 
 another in New Orleans, and had cleaned out a New 
 
BARBARISM 153 
 
 York cake-walk he expressed great curiosity, and 
 wanted to know if you were down on all his race, or 
 merely him. Told him you were not particular who 
 you killed, as long as it was a colored man. Ques- 
 tionable business for a naval officer to be in, but — 
 all's fair in love and — hellships." 
 
 Dick smiled weakly, in the darkness, remembering 
 the similar report he had given Bessie of Breen, and 
 both were silent for an interval; then Breen spoke, 
 slowly, as though to himself: "'All's fair in love 
 and war,' they say; yet there are some things that 
 are not fair — which are decidedly unfair." 
 
 Dick waited for more, but nothing more came. 
 Then he thought, for the first time since the drug- 
 ging, of his own unworthy position — that it was on 
 his account alone that this well-bred young gentle- 
 man was in the forecastle of an outbound ship, saw- 
 ing wood for a negro cook. 
 
 " I know what you refer to, Mr. Breen," he said ; 
 " and, believe me, I'm sorry ; I wouldn't have had it 
 happen for the world." 
 
 Breen faced him squarely in the darkness, but 
 there was no light for Dick to note the expression of 
 his face. 
 
 " I know I was a fool," he went on, " an insolent 
 fool; and after putting it in your power to have rae 
 court-martialed, I find that you preferred chasing 
 rae through sailor-town to help me." 
 
 " Oh," said Breen, with a long breath. " That's 
 what you mean.? I wasn't thinking of that. And 
 don't apologize, Halpin — Billson, I mean. We're 
 getting along first-rate now, and perhaps we can get 
 to be good friends. There's much about you that I 
 like and admire. But when I followed you that even- 
 ing, I hated you a little bit more than I ever ex- 
 
154 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 pected to hate a fellow-man. I didn't do it for you, 
 but for Miss Arthur. And I don't know but I'd do 
 it again, if she asked me to." 
 
 It is not pleasant to hear of being hated, even 
 though the hatred is dead. Dick did not answer, and 
 the two sat silently on the hatch, staring mechanic- 
 ally at the white sheen of the woodpile, forward of 
 the windlass, each busy with his thoughts. What 
 Breen's were, Dick could not guess; his own were 
 tinged at first with jealous satisfaction that he was 
 hated because of Mabel's interest in him; then he 
 thought wholly of her — the splendid, womanly girl, 
 who could so strangely influence them both — who 
 had held his heart through the years of absence, and 
 who could dominate this strong man at his side ; then 
 he thought, with growing appreciation, of the rare 
 character of this man, who, sensitive and sore, hating 
 him, could yet risk life and liberty in his behalf — 
 and do it cheerfully. Would he have done as much 
 for Breen.'* His brain said yes, and his heart said no. 
 The comparison forced upon him another query : 
 Which was worthiest of this girl.'' and his head alone 
 answered : — ■ 
 
 " He is a gentleman: I throw pea soup at a darkey 
 and run." 
 
 Faintly over the washing of the sea alongside, and 
 the soughing of the wind aloft, came the " wheese, 
 wheech " of the cook sharpening his knife, and Brccn 
 aroused himself with a shiver. 
 
 " Next time you douse him, drown him. Hold his 
 head in it." 
 
 Which goes to show that a gentleman, firmly estab- 
 lished, may make occasional excursions — and Dick 
 understood. 
 
BARBARISM 155 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 AT eight bells Mr. Thorpe resumed charge of his 
 AIl watch ; and, as Sawyer had proven himself 
 a capable officer, he was transferred to the port 
 watch under Mr. Thorpe, while the second mate 
 went back to the starboard watch. This promised 
 to relieve Dick of a good share of abuse from Pig, 
 but promised additional trouble for Breen, who al- 
 ready had earned the personal dislike of the captain 
 and carpenter, and now must bear with a watch 
 officer who disapproved of him. 
 
 But Dick found that the tall, mild-eyed, good- 
 looking first mate was a past master of an art in 
 which Pig was a bungling beginner. While this 
 broad-shouldered and heavy-fisted young ruffian 
 would balk at no foul word or epithet, and with un- 
 doubted courage would assault the men, singly or 
 collectively, on the slightest provocation, Mr. 
 Thorpe, standing still in one spot, with his best arm 
 in a sling and only a belaying-pin in his boot to em- 
 phasize his remarks, did more, in the eight to twelve 
 watch that night, to lessen Dick's self-esteem, than 
 had any other influence which had come into his life. 
 The mate's orders were correct — loudly spoken when 
 necessar}'^, soft as a mother's murmur when the men 
 were near; but there was vitriol in the tone, and 
 menace in the slight dropping of his left shoulder and 
 stiffening of the arm toward the implement in his 
 boot. Yet it was not this — not these physical and 
 visible manifestations of power — which could be met 
 with like manifestations more or less successfully; it 
 was the colossal egotism of the man — the innate and 
 aggressive belief in himself, in his sacredness and 
 
156 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 necessity to the world; it was his supreme contempt 
 for these animals whom he was forced to oversee, a 
 contempt which seemed to find expression in resent- 
 ment that they bore the shape of human beings, and 
 dared to think, speak, and suffer in a human way. 
 He used but little profanity, and only once had re- 
 course to the belaying-pin — when Winskel, the Rus- 
 sian, unwittingly passed to windward of him. For 
 this breach of nautical etiquette he felled him sense- 
 less — prone upon his back. Then he calmly stepped 
 upon his throat as he walked forward a few paces to 
 order Wagner to go aloft to the mizzcn royal. 
 Winskel had taken the shortest road to the rigging, 
 but Wagner was better-bred, and made a detour to 
 leeward. Dick escaped individual attention that 
 watch, but went to his bunk at eight bells wondering 
 dimly if he was or was not Dick Halpin, seaman 
 gunner — cock-of-the-walk in the old Vermont. He 
 was certainly being judged by standards unkno^vn 
 to him, and condemned by this judgment. 
 
 At four in the morning, under the topgallant fore- 
 castle, Breen, in a choking rage, informed him that 
 he had successfully run the gauntlet of the sleeping 
 first and third mates and the steward, only to find 
 the door between the forward and after cabin locked 
 from the captain's side. Then, on his way out, he 
 had been seen by the wakeful steward, who arose from 
 his berth, followed him, and bore witness to Mr. 
 Jones on the poop that he had caught him stealing 
 the officers' night lunch from the cabin table. Where- 
 upon Mr. Jones had called him aft and forcefully 
 rebuked him. 
 
 " Still," said Breen, as he rubbed his sore spots, 
 " it's better that the steward tliought I was after 
 the lunch. I'll try again. All I want is one gun and 
 
BARBARISM 157 
 
 the drop. I'm sorry now that I didn't hold to my 
 wheel. It would be easy some quiet night to leave 
 it and run down the after companion." 
 
 " I could do that," answered Dick, eagerly ; " but so 
 far," he added, dubiously, " the first mate hasn't left 
 the poop. Sawyer attends to everything forward." 
 
 " You would go down, search the skipper's room, 
 and secure his pistols, would you not.^ " 
 
 " Why— yes." 
 
 " I would necessarily be forward, perhaps asleep. 
 You would not have time to finish the search and 
 take your wheel again — the ship would come up or 
 fall off and you would be discovered, even though you 
 succeeded in finding the guns. You would have to 
 shoot your way forward to waken me. You would 
 have to drop the first and third mate — for Sawyer 
 is conscientious, — you would waken the skipper with 
 the noise, and you would have to drop him, too. 
 Though the steward would be an easy problem, for- 
 ward are the carpenter and cook, besides the watch 
 on deck. Good luck might carry you through, but-^ 
 how often must I remind you of your status under 
 the law — of your proximity to the gallows? If you 
 failed to reach me with shots enough left in the pis- 
 tols to finish the job and overawe the crew, you would 
 go in irons, if you were not killed ; and unless I re- 
 peated the feat and succeeded where you failed, I 
 could not save you. You are a sailor before the 
 mast, and the law of your country has placed a halter 
 around your neck, only waiting for action on your 
 part to draw tight the knot — and hang you." 
 
 " But why — how," asked the puzzled Dick ; " how 
 would it be different if you tried it and failed.'^ You 
 would go in irons, wouldn't you? " 
 
 " Yes, but I am a commissioned officer of the 
 
158 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 United States navy. I could convince any consul, or 
 commissioner, and save mj'self, though I cannot con- 
 vince ignorant brutes like these. But it does not 
 follow that I could save you. Both in the navy and 
 in the merchant marine a sailor is denied the right 
 of self-defense: more certainly is he denied the right 
 to take the initiative in assault. No, Billson, you 
 leave this to me. When I get the drop, do as I tell 
 you, and you will be safe." 
 
 He went below ; and until coffee time Dick paced 
 the deck apart from his watchmates, wondering at 
 this new phase of class distinction — half inclined to 
 doubt Breen's premises. But his intense earnestness, 
 and evident acquaintance with maritime law, with 
 the dominating egotism of that tall man on the poop, 
 finally decided the point for him. The mate would 
 not so dispassionately have felled him unless sure of 
 his ground: the ensign would not so strongly insist 
 on caution unless sure of the law and its workings. 
 He had been willing to admit the intellectual and 
 social superiority of Breen, and was now compelled 
 to admit his legal advantage over him. Was it from 
 fault of his own.P No, he had expended every energy 
 in his being to make himself what he was — to trans- 
 form the weak and undersized schoolboy to a trained 
 seaman of the navy. But he was of value only in 
 the navy. It had been energy misdirected ; and 
 though it was not his fault, the rcmed}- lay in his 
 own hands. Again he experienced the fever of ambi- 
 tion that had fired his soul when he walked out the 
 country road to Mr, Bronson's farm, and later, when 
 resolved to quit the navy. Nothing but a war with 
 another naval power would give him a chance for a 
 commission, and war was far away from the United 
 States. He must quit tiie sea, live on land, and learn 
 
BARBARISM 159 
 
 something not included in the tutelage of a seaman 
 apprentice. But to quit the sea he must safely finish 
 this passage; and to do so required that he exercise 
 self-control and moderation of speech and manner. 
 He must follow the good advice of Breen, who knew 
 all that he must learn to make himself a gentleman, 
 but who, probably, never had thrashed an enemy in 
 his life. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 N this frame of mind he went to the galley door to 
 get the coffee when, at three bells, the cook's rasp- 
 ing voice had apprised the watch that it was ready. 
 Perhaps it was because Dick was the nearest man to 
 the galley that the cook placed the coffee-pot on the 
 brick flooring far enough from the door to compel a 
 man reaching for it to step over the sill. Perhaps 
 it was accidental. Dick entered the galley bodil}', 
 one foot following the other over the sill, and as 
 he stooped for the coffee-pot he heard a snarl from 
 the cook at the stove amidships, and : " Get out o' my 
 galley, you no-'count trash. Wha' you come in my 
 galley fo' ? " Then he received on his breast and 
 shoulders the contents of a half-gallon pot which had 
 rested on the stove convenient to the cook's hand 
 when he entered. It was boiling hot salt water, and 
 a little of it splashed his cheek. 
 
 With a furious cry of pain and rage he shrunk 
 back, then — ethical distinctions flown to the winds — 
 bounded across the galley after the cook, who picked 
 up his knife on the way and retreated, still cursing, 
 to the other door. Here Dick caught him ; he 
 wrenched the knife from his hands and tossed it 
 away; then, frantic with pain, he gripped the black 
 
160 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 throat and squeezed to silence the vindictive voice — 
 and remembered himself. He must not kill. Then 
 came the thought that in this passion he had seen no 
 red, and again he gave rein to his rage ; but he simply 
 held the inert cook bj the collar, and with his free 
 fist pounded his face until it lost most of its human 
 characteristics. He was interrupted by Sawyer, who 
 caught his hand. 
 
 " What for, BiUson? " he asked. 
 
 " Scalded me," answered Dick, choking with pain. 
 " Scalded me for stepping into the galley after the 
 coffee. Feel my shirt — it's hot yet." 
 
 Sawyer investigated. 
 
 " You'll be all of a blister. Let go the nigger. 
 Get some paint oil out o' the locker, and rub yerself. 
 I'll see the old man and tell him 'bout this business 
 when he turns out." 
 
 The negro sputtered a parting threat at Dick as he 
 slunk to his stove, and Sawyer supported Dick to 
 the forecastle, for he was still weak from the loss of 
 blood he had suffered the day before. Here his 
 watchmates, who had secured the coffee, assisted in 
 removing his shirt and anointing his blistered shoul- 
 ders with oil. He did not replace tlie shirt, for 
 though the oil relieved the smarting, still there was 
 enough of agony in the mere pressure of a passing 
 breath of air to make him wish for death itself, rather 
 than suffer contact with harsh flannel. He sat on a 
 chest and drank his coffee, and when the others had 
 filed out to begin washing down the deck he still sat 
 there, waiting for the captain to turn out, when, in 
 humanit3''s name alone, he could expect relief from 
 the medicine chest. But he reckoned without Mr. 
 Thorpe, who appeared at the door just after four 
 bells had struck. 
 
BARBARISM 161 
 
 " Your wheel? " he asked in a quiet voice. 
 
 " Yes, sir," answered Dick, as evenly as was pos- 
 sible. 
 
 " Come out and take it. You're too fond of this 
 forecastle. It's harder to get you out to your work 
 than to run the ship. I've given you time enough 
 to fix yourself up. Now, out o' this." 
 
 " All right, sir," said Dick, standing up and reach- 
 ing for his shirt. He was a pitiable object, with his 
 haggard face contracted in pain and his naked, blis- 
 tered shoulders shivering with cold and the agony 
 of each movement ; but there was no pity in the mild, 
 blue ej'CS looking at him, and he knew better than 
 to appeal. He drew the shirt over his head and ad- 
 justed it, while involuntary wheezing groans burst 
 through his tightly locked teeth. 
 
 " That's a little man," sneered the mate. " Now, 
 don't cry this time, and next voyage you must bring 
 your mamma to sea with you. Put on your little 
 coat and your little cap, and come along." 
 
 And thus was Dick taught the standard of forti- 
 tude required of the American merchant sailor. He 
 did not assimilate the lesson at once — he was suffer- 
 ing too much, but as he steered his trick in bodily 
 torment, enough of a dogged, helpless fury entered 
 his soul to prevent his asking the captain for reme- 
 dies. And when the captain, ill-humored before his 
 breakfast, contemptuously stared him over in re- 
 sponse to Sawyer's earnest explanation of the case, 
 and remarked: " Steerin' all right, ain't he? Able 
 to work? What more does he want? " he was glad 
 that h'^ had not asked, and was bitterly content. 
 
 He recovered as he could, while the Mary Earl 
 traversed the first long leg of the zigzag which sail- 
 ing craft steer going south, and, turning the conier, 
 
162 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 caught the southeast trade and sailed over toward 
 the South American coast. But even while still a fit 
 subject for a hospital, he was not immune from fur- 
 ther ill-treatment from his superiors. Sawyer never 
 raised his hand, and seldom his voice, in dealing with 
 the men, and found no trouble in being understood 
 and obeyed; but each man of the crew, on an average 
 of twice a week, suffered contact with Mr. Jones's 
 fists or boots, or from the left-handed use of Mr. 
 Thorpe's belaying-pin, and listened daily to Captain 
 Bilker's profanely expressed bad opinion of them. 
 Pig kicked Dick enthusiastically at first, then confi- 
 dently and carelessly; and one day, having knocked 
 him down, looked at him with an expression on his 
 dull face born of an idea struggling into his brain. 
 
 *' Great heavens," he said, " but ye can't be Red- 
 head Halpin. That boy could fight a little bit." 
 
 " No," mused Dick, when safely out of range ; 
 " I'm not. Perhaps I never shall be again." 
 
 Three times Breen reported failure to enter the 
 after cabin before finally giving up the plan ; and 
 almost daily he reported some brutal happening of 
 the night before, or some bungling mistake on Pig's 
 part which had aroused the captain and brought 
 down his wrath. 
 
 " By all signs, Dick," — he had lately begun calling 
 him thus — " he'll not last long as second mate. 
 There may be a vacancy there. Sawyer'll be second 
 mate, but the skipper may want a third mate." 
 
 " Perhaps not. The ship sailed without one, and 
 Sawyer only got aft because the mate was laid up. 
 But if Pig comes forward, is there any reason why 
 I shouldn't take him down a little fartlicr.'' " 
 
 " None — except that it would call attention to 
 your powei's as a scrapper. If the skipper really 
 
BARBARISM 163 
 
 wanted a third mate, and we were sure of it, you 
 might win the promotion by your fists, as I under- 
 stand that is the usual way. But even then you 
 couldn't get into the after cabin. No, let Pig alone 
 until I get hold of a gun, or we resolve on a forlorn 
 hope with handspikes. You're a well-licked, self- 
 contained scrapper now — ^just the man to depend 
 upon when the time comes." 
 
 " As a last resort," said Dick, thoughtfully, " I 
 suppose we might, kindly and mercifully, disable the 
 steward some night." 
 
 " I wouldn't hesitate — I'm hanged if I would, — 
 only, the little man never comes forward of the galley 
 door after dark. How is your friend Chips coming 
 on?" 
 
 " Good — or rather, bad. I think the tension is 
 unsettling him. He called me into his shop the 
 other day and showed me his nice sharp broad-axe. 
 He's using his whetstone on it now, and it'll cut a 
 hair. He says the cook sharpens his knife all night, 
 and it keeps him awake." 
 
 " That's bad. I've no particular love for him ; 
 but I don't like the idea of engineering a man out of 
 his sanity ; and yet — I'm a cold-blooded egotist where 
 my own sanity is concerned, I sometimes fear for 
 myself. Ever see red now? " 
 
 " Not a bit," answered Dick. " I'm getting that 
 much good out of this." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 IT was the last dog-watch, the only time in the 
 twent3''-four hours when both watches were at 
 leisure, and Dick Halpin and Ensign Breen dared to 
 converse openly. 
 
164 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 They were walking up and down near the fore 
 hatch. In the alley between the forward house and 
 the weather rail the watch on deck was gathered in 
 groups, while the watch below passed in and out of 
 their own forecastle, their voices rising in discon- 
 nected murmurs over the rush of the wind through 
 the rigging and the swash of the sea. The cold 
 aight of the southern winter had fallen, and in the 
 northwest a half moon shone brightly, illumining be- 
 tween the obscurations of racing clouds every detail 
 of the deck and top-hamper, but, when hidden, 
 throwing the whole fabric into shadow blacker from 
 the contrast. Out of the darkness at such a moment 
 came the tall figure of the carpenter, who peered into 
 their faces. 
 
 " Hist, lad," he said cautiously to Dick. " Come 
 awa'. Come wi' me a bit." 
 
 He led him over to the rail, and lowering his 
 mouth to his ear, whispered : " To-night's the 
 Bight." 
 
 "To-night," repeated Dick. "The night for 
 what?" 
 
 " To-night's the night," said Chips, impressively. 
 " It's been a-tellin' me all the day. To-night, at 
 eight bells i' the last dog-watch, he'll have his knife 
 sharp enough to suit him." 
 
 " What — who's been telling you ? What do you 
 mean. Chips ? " 
 
 " The voice — the wee bit voice in my ear, lad. 
 D'ye no hear it yersel'.'* Hear it noo.? * Eight bells 
 i' the last dog-watch.' He's at it noo. Hear him — 
 a-grindin' and a-scrapin' wi' his butcher's steel. And 
 he's gettin' nought but a wire eedge — nought but a 
 wire eedge. And he don't know, the loon; he don't 
 know." 
 
BARBARISM 16S 
 
 The carpenter chuckled ; and Dick listened, but 
 heard no sound of knife sharpening. 
 
 " He don't know," continued Chips. " But you 
 do, lad. Saw ye ever the like of such an eedge as I 
 ha' put on the broad-axe ! And he's nought but a wire 
 eedge on his bit o' pot metal." And again the car- 
 penter chuckled joyously. Then he bolted aft in 
 the darkness, and Dick returned thouglitfuUy to 
 Breen at the hatch. 
 
 " He hears voices," he said ; " and he hears the 
 cook sharpening his knife; but I couldn't. He's 
 half crazy. I haven't heard that knife sharpening 
 since he scalded me." 
 
 " Nor I. No doubt you discouraged him. He 
 would cheerfully knife you if he dared, but as I 
 said, he is a poltroon from his wool down. And 
 Chips is safe enough if he only knew it." 
 
 " Chips must have been a little touched before it 
 began. Otherwise, why don't I hear voices.'' We're 
 in the same boat." 
 
 " Difference of age, temperament, and brand of 
 lunacy. You were a little touched, too, and I'm 
 catching it. What cures one man kills another. 
 There goes eight bells." 
 
 The tinkle of the bell sounded at the wheel, and 
 Breen stepped toward the large bell at the foremast 
 to repeat the strokes. Before he could do so, a 
 hoarse, blood-freezing shriek rang out from the lee 
 galley door, and, amid startled exclam.ations of 
 jostled men, the carpenter's voice followed with: 
 " Help ! Help I Murder ! " Then he sprang around 
 the coraer of the house and mounted the fore hatch. 
 
 " Shut up that noise forrard, there," shouted Mr. 
 Jones from the poop. " Strike eight bells. WTiat's 
 the matter.? " 
 
166 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 Breen struck the bell, and the watch below, already 
 out of the forecastle, followed the carpenter, while 
 the others from the weather alley trooped forward. 
 The moon, suddenly appearing from behind a cloud, 
 illumined their wondering faces and the distorted 
 features of the carpenter on the hatch. He stood 
 with arms raised over his head, eyes blazing, and lips < 
 drawn tightly over his teeth, while incoherent growls 
 came from his throat. 
 
 " Hold him ! " he screamed at last. " Hold the 
 black cutthroat. Take awa' the knife — ^the knife — 
 the knife. It has a wire eedge." 
 
 " It's all right. Chips," called Dick, advancing 
 toward him. " The cook isn't there." 
 
 The carpenter turned, glared at him, and shrank 
 away from him. 
 
 " Back, ye murderin' de'il," he roared. " Back 
 wi' ye. Ha' ye no done enough ? " 
 
 He bounded down to leeward, turned sharply, and 
 rushed through the group of men, scattering them 
 right and left. Aft he went, yelling ceaselessly, 
 meeting Mr. Jones at the mainmast and upsetting 
 him. He mounted the poop steps in two bounds, 
 sped along the alley, and the crew, crowding aft, 
 saw him poised for an instant on the taffrail. Then, 
 with a long, mournful wail echoing from his lips, he 
 disappeared from sight just as the moon hid behind 
 a cloud. 
 
 " Man overboard ! " sang out the helmsman. 
 " Man overboard ! " 
 
 " Put yer wheel down," roared Mr. Jones from 
 amidships. " All hands forrard there. Stand 
 by braces fore and aft. Clear away that lee 
 quarter boat. Hard down yer wheel. Hard 
 down." 
 
BARBARISM 167 
 
 " Hard down, sir," answered the man at the wheel. 
 " Hard down it is." 
 
 Men scattered to stations for tacking ship, and 
 Mr. Jones hurried aft, while the ship came slowly up 
 to the wind. Dick was one of the jib-sheet men, and 
 he mounted the forecastle deck, where, as going about 
 on the other tack was obviously unnecessary, he 
 expected to do nothing; but a thundering voice — 
 louder than Pig's — from the poop changed the pros- 
 pect. The captain was on deck. 
 
 " Hard up that wheel — quick ! " roared the voice. 
 " Clap on to them weather jib-sheets forrard there. 
 Trim over to windward. Forrard all hands o' ye. 
 Stand by weather forebraces. Oh ! " — and the roar- 
 ing voice took on a note of distress — " Oh — oh, you 
 d — d two-ends-an'-the-bight-of-a-poor-fool, just look 
 at my ship now! Look at her! Let go to looward! 
 Haul 'round them foreyards ! 'Round wi' 'em ! Box 
 this ship back 'fore the spars go ! Get forrard out o' 
 this, you infernal lunkhead ! Get out o' my sight ! " 
 
 Mr. Jones, saying nothing in reply, headed the 
 rush of men to the forebraces ; but it was too late. 
 They had not bent the heavy weather canvas needed 
 in those latitudes, and the old, patched-up rags aloft 
 could not stand the shaking they were receiving. 
 Royals went first, then topgallantsails and topsails, 
 and before the ship, under the influence of the backed 
 foreyards and the still intact lower foretopsail, had 
 begun to swing back, nearly every sail aloft, as well 
 as the two outer jibs, was in ribbons. Then came 
 in the order : " Swing the foreyards and trim over- 
 head sheets." Dick, at the forebraces, heard Sawyer, 
 aft near the quarter boat, say : " Then ye won't get 
 a boat over, sir? " 
 
 "Boat over?" yelled the captain, "Boat over 
 
108 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 — for a man crazy enough to jump? Not for the 
 best man aboard. Let them gripes alone an' 'tend 
 to 3^er work forrard." 
 
 "Aye, aye, sir." And Sawyer joined the others. 
 
 All hands remained on deck that night, sending 
 aloft and bending canvas. It was work that needed 
 light, and lanterns were lit. One of these, shining in 
 through the galley door for a moment, disclosed to 
 the man carrying it the body of the cook, stretched 
 out face down on the galley floor, with the carpenter's 
 broad-axe buried in his head. He had been struck 
 from behind. 
 
 Later investigation disclosed the carving knife 
 in its place in the rack on the bulkhead, in company 
 with the steel, fork, and long spoons used in cooking. 
 It was no sharper than it ought to have been. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 IT was Dick's wheel from six to eight next morn- 
 ing, and when four bells had struck, he went to 
 take it, noticing, in the gathering light, the body of 
 the cook on the mizzen hatch, and Mr. Jones busy 
 with the last stitches in its canvas shroud. As he 
 steered his trick, he marveled at the unofficcrlike 
 character of the work, then remembered that through 
 the night he had not once heard the voice of the 
 second mate; but it was not until seven bells had 
 struck that his guess was confirmed. The captain 
 came up the after companion with a Bible in his 
 hand, and stepped forward to the break of the poop, 
 while the crew, at Sawyer's call, mustered aft to the 
 mizzen hatch. Dick, at the wheel, could see nothing 
 but the tall figure of the captain, and could hear little 
 
BARBARISM 1^9 
 
 but his voice. He laid the Book on the monkey-rail, 
 and began. 
 
 " Men," he said, solemnly, " we're mustered here to 
 give the cook a send-off 'cordin' to rule — not as how 
 I can see as it's goin' to do him any good — it seems 
 to me that if prayin' could do him any good, it 
 oughter have come 'long 'fore he died. Same with 
 the carpenter, who's some miles astern now. Just 
 the same, I'll read the sarvice for both of 'em, and 
 which ever of 'em it fits the best, why, I suppose, 
 will get it. First thing, though, before we get rid 
 o' the cook, we'll fill his place." Dick pricked up his 
 ears. 
 
 " Now, you, there," continued the captain, " you 
 big-headed, bull-headed, fool-headed lobster, that 
 thinks he's a second mate, you get into that room 
 o' yours, and you get your duds out of it and into 
 the cook's room, while I'm lookin' at you. You 
 hear? Not a word! You're cook o' this ship from 
 now on, or you go in irons in the 'tween deck. What 
 d'ye say now? " 
 
 The captain drew a revolver from his pocket, and 
 placed it upon the Bible. Dick heard muffled words 
 from the main deck, but nothing intelligible. Then 
 he saw the captain replace the pistol in his pocket. 
 " That's sensible," he continued. " Let's see you 
 keep it up. Go in there, one o' you, and give him a 
 hand with his chest." 
 
 Captain Bilker began pacing the poop, and ten 
 minutes went by before he spoke again; then he ad- 
 vanced to the rail, opened the Book, paused while 
 he took off his hat and jammed it into his coat 
 pocket, and read a chapter chosen at random. Fin- 
 ishing, he closed the Book, put on his hat, and waved 
 his hand to those below. 
 
170 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " Over with him," he said, and then stepped to 
 the rail. 
 
 One end of the canvas sack circled into view over 
 the edge of the poop, as the body shot through the 
 gangway, and Dick heard the splash. The cook's 
 funeral was over. 
 
 " Gawd," said the captain, peering over the side. 
 ** Reg'lar belly-cut dive." 
 
 Whether it was this remark, the grisly incongruity 
 of the whole proceeding, or a sort of hysteria coming 
 after his night of fatigue, with an unsuspected sense 
 of relief at the removal of Pig's and the cook's 
 menace as a prompting agency, that brought it on, 
 Dick never could determine. He began to laugli, 
 softly but unconstrainedly ; and when Captain Bilker 
 came aft, Bible in hand, and glared reprovingly at 
 him, he still continued. 
 
 " What's the matter wi' you ? " he demanded. 
 
 " N-n-nothing, sir," answered Dick, flushing. 
 
 " Yes, there is somethin', I tell yer. Somethin' 
 up yer sleeve, damn ye," stormed the captain. " And 
 I'm dead on to you, my fo'castle lawyer. You're 
 slick, but I'm slicker. You grin in my face, will 
 yer.? I'll see 'f my first mate ain't right, after all. 
 Mr. Thorpe," he bawled forward, " call all hands 
 aft again." Then he returned to the break of the 
 poop, and Dick, sober of face now, with no inclina- 
 tion to laughter, bore the malevolent glances of the 
 insulted autocrat, as he paced back and forth while 
 ■waiting for the men. 
 
 The starboard watch trooped out of the fore- 
 castle from their interrupted breakfast, and joined 
 the others on their way aft. The captain looked 
 down on them. 
 
 " I've given you men a good long time to produce 
 
BARBARISM 171 
 
 the one that broke Mr. Thorpe's arm," he said. 
 " Time's up. Pass him out at once, or back ye go to 
 yer first grub." 
 
 Dick heard an indistinct voice answering, and 
 then, from the captain : 
 
 "Ye'U tell me on the poop, hey.? What's the 
 matter wi' tellin' where ye are.'' Hey.'' All right. 
 Come up here, then, and no games." 
 
 Smith, the cockney, arose to Dick's view on the 
 steps, and his voice became intelligible. 
 
 " Hi've talked to hall 'ands forrard, sir, hand 
 we're hall hagreed, though that's not syin' we can 
 prove hit, sir. But hall of hus think has 'ow it was 
 the man you took haft has a hofficer. He was quick 
 to deny hit forrard, sir, but he was just has quick 
 to swear hit wasn't Billson, when the mate thought 
 hit was. He knowed who hit was, sir; hit was 'isself, 
 hand hall 'ands thinks so, sir." 
 
 "That'll do. Get down off the poop," said the 
 captain. " Mr. Sawyer," he called, " step up here." 
 
 Smith went down, and Sawyer soon appeared, fol- 
 lowing Captain Bilker aft through the alley. 
 
 " Mr. Sawyer," said the latter, facing him, " the 
 men accuse you of bein' the man who broke into the 
 mate's room first night out. I've made you second 
 mate, and so far I've no fault to find wi' you ; but 
 I want this settled. Did you.? Or was it this man 
 here? I want the truth, now." 
 
 Sawyer looked at Dick, and there was the barest 
 suspicion of a wink in his humorous eye; then he 
 looked gravely and respectfully into the captain's 
 face. 
 
 " It was me, cap'n," he answered. 
 "You, was it.f* And why didn't you own up to 
 it.? " 
 
172 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " Didn't want to get shot or thumped. I was 
 'fore the mast then, cap'n. You've made me an 
 officer, and I'm much obliged for the favor; but just 
 the same it makes a mighty sight o' difference if 
 anything happens to me this v'yagc. As man to 
 man I'm not afraid o' Mr. Thorpe now." 
 
 *' But what were you after.'* What did you want 
 in his room ? " 
 
 " Haven't the slightest idea, sir ; I was drunk 
 enough for anythin', but not too drunk to fight, and 
 remember what happened. He struck at me, and I 
 twisted his arm. Now, cap'n, you can put me forrard 
 again, and take Mr. Jones, or any one else, aft in my 
 place; but, remember, if anything happens to me, 
 I'm an officer." 
 
 " Can you square yerself wi' Mr. Thorpe? " 
 
 " Don't care a rap, cap'n, whether I can or not. 
 I'm second mate — he's only first. He ran foul o' 
 me on deck that first night, and things are kinder 
 square as they are." 
 
 Captain Bilker walked over to the weather rail, 
 and stared to windward, and Sawyer improved the 
 occasion by winking solemnly and warningly at the 
 amazed Dick. Then the captain returned. 
 
 " If I send you forrard I'll have to take that swine 
 back again ; and I don't want him — he's more at 
 home in the galley, where he put in his first voyage. 
 But if I keep you aft, how'll you get on wi' the men ? 
 How'll you get on wi' the mate ? " 
 
 " Easy enough, sir. The men'll be much obliged 
 to me for gettin' them full an' plenty, as you 
 promised 'em, sir. Keep me aft and they'll do as I 
 tell 'em, just as they have been doin'. Put me 
 forrard, and I'll thump the last man of 'cm for 
 givin' me away. Keep me aft, and I'll take the 
 
BARBARISM 173 
 
 mate's orders, do my work, and know my place ; but 
 if he runs foul o' me, I'll break his left arm as easy 
 as I did his right." 
 
 Captain Bilker paced a few turns from rail to rail, 
 then said: 
 
 "All right. Settle it wi' the mate. I'll talk it 
 over with him myself. Send the watch to breakfast." 
 
 Sawyer went forward, and the captain turned 
 fiercely on Dick. 
 
 "What the h — 1 you laughin' at just now?" he 
 demanded. 
 
 "At the way the cook went over, sir, and at what 
 you said," answered Dick, suddenly realizing that 
 nothing was so good as the truth. 
 
 Captain Bilker studied him from his head to his 
 feet, and with a half snort, half grunt, went down 
 to his breakfast. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 BEYOND that comprehensive wink to Dick at the 
 wheel, Sawyer offered no explanation of his 
 vicarious confession, and the two friends reasoned 
 that, secure in his advantage, he had done it out of 
 the goodness of his heart, not only to relieve Dick, 
 and possibly Breen, from suspicion, but to throw the 
 captain back upon his promise and secure better food 
 for the men. The latter result was attained, for 
 Captain Bilker, loudly proclaiming himself a man 
 of his word, ordered the steward to give them " full 
 and plenty " — which meant the addition to the gov- 
 ernment allowance of a few of the substitutes and an 
 additional quart of water per diem. 
 
 What difference, if any. Sawyer's confession made 
 in his relations with Mr. Thorpe never became 
 
174 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 known in the forecastle. Work went on without 
 apparent friction between the two, and much more 
 smoothly as regarded the men. It was as if the 
 tragic deaths of the cook and carpenter had exer- 
 cised a humanizing effect on Mr. Thorpe ; for, 
 though his tongue was as bitter as ever, he rarely 
 raised his belaying-pin from his boot. As for Pig, 
 the full measure of his disgrace hardly seemed to 
 come home to him. As cook he could secure for 
 himself as good food as was served in the cabin ; his 
 berth was as comfortable, and his duties were easier. 
 After a few days of moroseness and surliness, he 
 settled into an apathetic, porcine indifference, from 
 which he aroused himself only to growl curses on 
 Dick's head when he passed the galley door. Dick 
 heard them., and asked Breen's permission to silence 
 them. 
 
 " No ! " snapped Brcen ; " you're to keep out of 
 trouble. Great heavens ! " he exclaimed, passionately, 
 " what have I done to be compelled to suffer like 
 this? " He had been all day at a washtub, and his 
 knuckles were sore. 
 
 "But," answered Dick, gently, "why need 3'ou? 
 It is much easier for me to bear it than for you. 
 There are only two aft now — for Sawj^er doesn't 
 count, provided we succeed — and one is crippled. 
 Why not — you and I — sneak aft in my watch some 
 night, floor the mate, gag him, go down and fix the 
 skipper, and get his pistols and gun. Then we'll 
 have charge." 
 
 " Yes, we might. I've talked bravely enough about 
 it, and yet — call it cowardice if you like; but I don't 
 say that I wouldn't on impulse — you sec, some one 
 would be killed, surely. Some of the men, perhaps, 
 who wouldn't understand. I know that I hhould be 
 
BARBARISM 175 
 
 exonerated, and yet I hesitate at bloodshed. If it 
 were in time of war I should drive ahead. War ex- 
 cuses killing, even to a man's own conscience. I 
 had really hoped, that in case of a vacancy in the 
 galley — which I confess now I didn't wish for — I 
 should be made cabin flunkey, or something of that 
 sort, while the steward cooked for all hands. Now 
 I am stalled again." 
 
 " I've a good mind,'* said Dick, slowly and 
 thoughtfully, " to take this upon myself. There is 
 a difference of training, perhaps temperament, be- 
 tween us, and I have none of your scruples. I can 
 overcome them both in three minutes — one after the 
 other. Then I can arm myself in two minutes, at 
 least. Five minutes' work will do it." 
 
 " And hang you." 
 
 " But why ^ " asked Dick, vehemently. " I am 
 the government's hired man. My government has 
 trained me to fight. I am taken forcibly from my 
 job, and I fight as I have been taught, to get back to 
 my work. Why should my government hang me.? " 
 
 " Because certain legal gentlemen would conceive 
 it their duty to arrange it," answered Brcen, wearily. 
 " We need not argue this question. If you fall back 
 upon your relation to your government, I fall back 
 upon mine. As your officer, I forbid you to assault 
 any one aboard this ship until I take the initiative and 
 so direct you. I also order you to report to me 
 twenty-four hours hence any plan you may be able 
 to think of which will give me possession of arms 
 without previous friction. I will think also. My 
 duties now are light and conducive to thought. I 
 am the skipper's laundryman. I have washed his 
 shirts to-day ; to-morrow I expect to have his socks." 
 
 Dick pondered through the middle watch on the 
 
176 MASTERS OF IVIEN 
 
 ensign's new attitude, but not until he had rolled into 
 his bunk at four in the morning had he brought the 
 problem to a satisfactory solution. 
 
 " Breen's a gentleman, to begin with," he mused. 
 " As a gentleman, he regards fighting, knock-downs, 
 and such things as ungentleraanlj unless in behalf 
 of others, or for a principle removed from his own 
 private interests. I wish Pig had stayed home, so 
 that I could have settled things before getting these 
 notions. And yet, Brcen isn't always this way. He 
 feels like murder, sometimes. Well — not so often as 
 I do ; he's on that side of the fence — and I'm on the 
 other. He's a gentleman, and I'm not. I wonder 
 if I can be — for her — I wonder if I can forgive 
 Pig-" 
 
 Then he went to sleep, to wa:ken at seven bells at 
 peace with himself and with Pig — serenely confident 
 in his sleep-born loftiness of purpose. As was cus- 
 tomary with him, fresh from the navy, he was first 
 on his feet; and he started toward the galley to get 
 the breakfast with more of good humor in his face 
 than had shown there lately; but, in half a minute 
 from the time that he stepped through the forecastle 
 door, his new-found philosophy was shocked out of 
 him. First he heard his name called, and observed 
 Breen, his hands full of brass-rags, running down 
 the poop steps. The watch was scattered about, 
 some swabbing paint work, others, like Brcen, scour- 
 ing brass. Each face was turned forward, each pair 
 of eyes focused on a point abaft the forward house. 
 Dick hastened around the corner just as Breen called 
 again. 
 
 " Take a hand in that, Halpin." 
 
 Forward of the main hatch, flat on his back and 
 black in the face, was Sawyer. His eyes were bulg- 
 
BARBARISM 177 
 
 ing, his tongue protruding, the lower part of his 
 body wriggling feebly. Kneeling on his chest was 
 the cause of it all — Pig Jones. His left fingers 
 gripped Sawyer's throat, and his right, doubled into 
 a fist the size of a sledge-hammer, was doing the 
 work of a hammer on Sawyer's face. 
 
 " Think, do ye," said Pig between blows, " yer 
 goin' to run me 'cause ye've got my berth. I'll 
 learn ye." 
 
 It was no time to consider ethics or philosophy, 
 even though Dick had not received orders from 
 Breen. Sawyer, a good friend, was being murdered 
 by a giant ignorant of his strength, innocent of 
 murderous intent, perhaps — bent only upon " learn- 
 ing " his victim. Dick's boot, impacting on Pig's 
 jaw, stopped the tutelage. It was a kick that would 
 have broken an ordinary jaw, but Pig's was not an 
 ordinary jaw, and it held together; yet he was driven 
 off from Sawyer's chest by the force of the kick, and 
 he scrambled to his feet six feet away. 
 
 " Defend yourself, Halpin," called Breen, and 
 Dick, watching Pig closely, observed, out of the 
 corner of his eye. Sawyer rising weakly to his feet, 
 with Breen and others around him. 
 
 " You — you — you — kick me," spluttered Pig. 
 "You — Halpin, hey .5* I knew ye." 
 
 " Right," said Dick, calmly ; " Redhead Halpin. 
 You got only one back. Pig Jones. There are more 
 kicks coming to you." Then he dodged the bull-like 
 rush of the giant and struck him lightly in the ribs 
 as he passed. 
 
 There is no need to describe in technical detail the 
 fight that followed — the fiercest battle with fists that 
 Dick had ever engaged in. It raged and whirled 
 from the main hatch to the break of the poop, for- 
 
178 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 ward again, then aft. Pig bellowed and threatened 
 insanely, expending his strength in futile blows and 
 rushes. Dick was merely himself again — not the self 
 which had formulated plans of inward discipline and 
 forgiven Pig, but the self which remembered the per- 
 secutions of Pig as man and boy. lie was a paleolithic 
 reversion plus the education of the modern seaman 
 apprentice. Fired by an ecstasy of pride and cour- 
 age, he would not now have exchanged his character- 
 istics for those of Breen — not even for the power to 
 win the girl that he loved. He fought with his hands, 
 and he fought to win, but in his greatest intensity of 
 feeling he saw no red. 
 
 He noticed, as he struck and feinted, dodged and 
 whirled, that men followed them, but avoided con- 
 tact, even though some held handspikes poised aloft. 
 Once he heard a clarion voice over their exclama- 
 tions : 
 
 *' Let them alone, Mr. Thorpe. Stand back there, 
 Mr. Sawyer. He's doing well. Let 'em have it out." 
 
 And he fought on, caring little for the sympathy 
 in the voice or for the poised handspikes, until, 
 breathing hard, and dizzy with the shock of interrup- 
 tion, he found himself held tightly by Sawyer and 
 the captain, and looking down at his quivering, un- 
 conscious antagonist. 
 
 ""That'll do, young man," said the captain. 
 " You've licked him fair. Don't spoil it." 
 
 " Come forrard, Billson," said Sawyer. " Get yer 
 breakfast." The captain released his arm, and 
 Sawyer led him away. 
 
 "Ye came just in time to save my wind, Billson," 
 he said, " and I'll not forget it. I didn't think you 
 could do him, and I was ready with a club. Glad 
 now, on your account, I didn't use it, but sorry on 
 
BARBARISM 179 
 
 mine. Why, the brute struck me from behind just 
 'cause I'd objected, five minutes before, to his spat- 
 tering slops on the deck." 
 
 " My name's Halpin, Mr. Sawyer," panted Dick. 
 *' That fellow's an old school-time enemy, and I 
 suppressed my name and identity only to avoid this. 
 Now that it's over, it doesn't matter — and say, the 
 skipper seemed to be on my side. Can't we convince 
 him about Mr. Breen ? " 
 
 " Not on your life," said Sawyer, wamingly. 
 " Don't think of it. Too much has happened. And 
 I'll tell you somethin'. The skipper's suspectin'. I 
 heard him an' the mate only yesterday talkin' about 
 your friend Breen. You see he can't, in the nature 
 o' things, keep himself back altogether. The sailor 
 sticks out of him, an' the skipper's catchin' on. Now, 
 that's bad for him in this kind of a ship. An' only 
 this momin' the old man asked me what I thought 
 about him — whether I thought he was anythin' more 
 than what he made out, and I said that as far as I 
 could see he was the most useless, good-for-nothin' 
 soger that ever signed able seaman. But it didn't go 
 — I could see that. Give him a pointer to watch out. 
 So long, now. I've talked enough wi' you." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 BEFORE Dick reached the forecastle, whither his 
 watch had preceded him, he heard loud and 
 violent language from the captain, and turned to 
 look aft. Pig was sitting up on the hatch, but was 
 receiving no attention from any one. It was Breen 
 who was being rebuked. He had climbed the poop 
 steps and had begun to rub the brass plate on the 
 
180 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 monkey-rail, and over him stood Captain Bilker, 
 wiping his hands and coat sleeve with a handkerchief. 
 As Breen seemed in no present danger of assault, and 
 as there was not much time left for breakfast, Dick 
 entered the forecastle, concluding that Breen, in his 
 hurry to relieve Sawyer's predicament, had left the 
 brass smeared with oil and bath brick, and that Cap- 
 tain Bilker had rubbed against it. This proved to 
 be the case. When Dick came out at eight bells, 
 Breen was stowing his box of oils and rags in its 
 place under the topgallant forecastle, and Mr. 
 Thorpe, who had come forward to set the men at 
 work for the watch, was further berating him, 
 
 *' You get your breakfast, and at one bell you turn 
 to — d'ye hear? And next time you leave any oil 
 around loose, you'll lick it up." 
 
 Then he detailed the port watch to various tasks 
 about the rigging, Dick's being the squaring of rat- 
 lines on the weather mizzen's shrouds. 
 
 *' And take a piece o' twine with you," said the 
 officer, " and go up first thing and overhaul and stop 
 the royal and to'gallant buntlines." 
 
 " Aye, aye, sir," answered Dick, and headed for 
 the " bosun's-locker." 
 
 There being no boys or ordinary seamen in the 
 crew, this lofty work was given to Dick and other 
 young and active men, while scouring brass, swab- 
 bing, scrubbing, sweeping, and all unseamanly work 
 usually done by boys was given to Breen and others 
 as useless as he pretended to be. Musing on the in- 
 justice of keeping Breen up in the forenoon watcli 
 for an act which indirectly saved the life of an of- 
 ficer, Dick secured the twine, with the marline-spike 
 and marline for the ratlines, and went aft. On the 
 way, he met Pig stumbling slowly forward to his 
 
BARBARISM 181 
 
 galley. His eyes were closed and blackened ; his face 
 was marked and bruised. He was a ludicrous and 
 pathetic picture of misery, and Dick was sorry for 
 him. Mr. Thorpe was out of sight, and the captain 
 had gone below. He stopped before him. 
 
 " Pig," he said, " I didn't mean to do so much. 
 I'd made my mind up to drop all grudge and call 
 the whole thing square, but you forced me to it. 
 Will you shake hands and start fresh ? " Dick ex- 
 tended his hand ; but Pig, lifting his chin to see easier 
 through his swollen eyelids, tersel}"^ consigned him 
 to the lower regions, and passed on. 
 
 " All right," said Dick, and added to himself as 
 he went aft, " Well, I feel better for having offered." 
 
 On the mizzen royal yard he saw a sail on the 
 southwestern horizon, squarely on the starboard 
 beam ; for the southeast trade having failed, the ship 
 was now headed away for the Cape with a mild 
 quartering wind. Looking down, he beheld the cap- 
 tain pacing the poop and hailed : " Sail, oh ! Broad 
 on the starboard beam. Seems to be steering parallel 
 with us, sir." 
 
 " All right — all right," answered the captain, 
 reaching for his binoculars ; then he looked aloft and 
 called out : " Why in thunder don't ye put it to music 
 and sing it.'' Don't have so much to say up there." 
 
 Dick was long past being hurt by such criticism. 
 He finished stopping the buntlines and came down, 
 noticing, as he passed the topmast-head, that the 
 seizing of the monkey, or signal-gaff, lift was chafed 
 through, and that only a couple of turns held the 
 weight of the gaff. Obviously this was a matter to 
 be reported at once ; but not caring to hail the deck 
 again, he descended to the eyes of the lower rigging, 
 where his work on the ratlines would besin? and called 
 
182 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 easily to Mr. Thorpe, who was ascending the poop 
 steps : 
 
 " Seizing of the monkey-gaff lift is all gone, sir," 
 he said. " Shall I go up and fix it? " 
 
 But Captain Bilker, not seeing the mate, and sup- 
 posing that Dick was again addressing him, turned 
 fiercely around and yelled angrily : 
 
 " Don't you be so d — d busy up there wi' 3'our 
 comments and your suggestions to me. I know 
 my business without your help. You 'tend to 
 your'n." 
 
 " Go on wi' those ratlines," commanded the mate, 
 consistently deferring to the captain's mood, " and 
 shut up." 
 
 " Aye, aye, sir," answered Dick, respectfully ; 
 then he went to work. 
 
 No man can with surety trace to a prompting 
 emotion the moods and whims of an autocrat; but 
 Dick, watching the surly-faced skipper stamping 
 Liick and forth between the binnacle and the rail, 
 occasionally snarling at the man at the wheel, occa- 
 sionaHy peering through the binoculars, shrewdly 
 guessed that the disturbance of bile came of his being 
 compelled to wash his hands twice that morning and 
 to give his coat to the steward for cleaning. In this 
 guess he was confirmed when, at one bell, Brcen ap- 
 peared on deck. 
 
 " IMr. Thorpe," yelled the captain as he spied liim, 
 " set that infernal insect to work on this brass work 
 an' get it done. Them stanchions there. Mcbbe 
 he'll know how to scour brass work properly 'fore I'm 
 through with him." 
 
 The brass work indicated was a set of stanchions, 
 or braces, at the ends of the poop and house rails, 
 which so far in the voyage had not been cle.incd. 
 
BARBARISM 183 
 
 and had taken on a rusty green and blue color. Breen 
 secured his box of rags and went to work. 
 
 " You gentleman's gentleman," sneered the irate 
 captain as he hovered over him. " You navy officer, 
 you, I'll I'am you somethin' ! " 
 
 Breen answered not, but scoured industriously ; 
 and Dick, above them in the rigging, speculated on 
 the chances if he should let fly his marline-spike 
 at Captain Bilker's head. 
 
 So the forenoon watch, passed, the sail to star- 
 board drawing closer, and the captain becoming 
 more and more irritable, until, at about five bells, 
 the other ship ran up an ensign. The captain studied 
 it through the glasses. 
 
 " Nothin' but a d — d Nova Scotia rat trap," he 
 remarked ; " an' I thought it was an American ship." 
 
 It was the first ship that had come within signal 
 distance since they had sailed, and in spite of his 
 disappointment Captain Bilker was naturally anxious 
 to communicate. He looked around the deck. The 
 whole watch was aloft with the exception of Breen. 
 
 " Here, you," he called, " you gentleman's man. 
 Can you read letters stenciled on little flags ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," answered Breen, standing erect with 
 the peculiar set look which had come to his face 
 lately. 
 
 " Put that gear away, an' clean yer hands an' 
 come aft here an' help me signalize that Bluenoser. 
 Bear a hand, now." 
 
 In five minutes Breen was with him. 
 
 " Run up this ensign on them signal halyards 
 there," commanded the captain, tossing the Stars 
 and Stripes to the top of the cabin, where he had 
 already piled the nineteen small flags of the Inter- 
 national Signal Code. Then he followed with his 
 
184. MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 signal books and glasses, taking a position forward 
 of the mizzenmast. Breen hoisted the ensign to the 
 monkey-gaff, which, as the flag was small and the 
 wind light, held up under the strain. 
 
 " Code pennant," muttered the captain, as the 
 stranger's ensign came down and a small triangular 
 flag went up. " Answer that," he said to Breen, 
 kicking a small flag toward him. " Send it up on 
 t'other part o' the halyards." Breen obliged him. 
 
 " Now get our number hooked together," said the 
 captain, naming four letters. " They're stamped on 
 the canvas edge. See them.'* J. on top, then the 
 rest." 
 
 He opened the code book to interpret the four 
 flags now flying from the stranger's gaff, and Breen 
 made up the ship's number. 
 
 " Annie M. Sheldon, o' Halifax," muttered the 
 skipper. Then he verified Breen's arrangement of 
 the flags before ordering them hoisted. 
 
 " You do seem to know somethin', after all," he 
 said sharply. 
 
 * More than you do," muttered Dick in the rig- 
 ging, a little fearful that Breen, unaware of the 
 captain's lately aroused suspicion, would show too 
 great a proficiency at signaling; but he could not 
 warn him now. 
 
 The number went aloft, and Captain Bilker jotted 
 down on an envelope the interpretations of tlirce sig- 
 nals which followed in rapid succession from the 
 other. 
 
 " Six days out o' Montevideo for Cape Town," lie 
 read. Then he directed the hoisting of three sets of 
 flags which told the other ship that they were 
 fifty-seven days out of New York bound to Hong 
 Kong. 
 
BARBARISM 185 
 
 " Now that's over," said Captain Bilker, " we'll 
 ask for news. Run up B. W. F." 
 
 Breen quickly toggled these flags together and 
 hoisted them, watched closely by the captain. 
 
 Four flags answered from the other, and Captain 
 Bilker, observing through the glasses, called out: 
 « C. K. V. R. What the deuce is he drivin' at.? " 
 
 He studied his book. " Battle," he announced. 
 " Must be spellin' somethin' out. Run up the an- 
 swerin' pennant." 
 
 Breen picked it up readily. It was the same small 
 flag which he had hoisted first, and had two uses, 
 one to indicate the code used, the other to signify 
 that a signal is understood. 
 
 " How d'you know that was the answerin' pen- 
 nant ? " yelled the captain in his ear. " Hey ? Tell 
 me. How d'you know so much 'bout these flags ? " 
 
 " You told me to hoist it, sir,'* answered Breen, 
 flushing slightly, yet ready with an explanation. " I 
 was valet to a yacht owner once, sir, and I've seen 
 these flags before." 
 
 The captain glared at him a moment, then said 
 with a sniff" : " I b'lieve yer a-lyin'. Don't you try 
 an' fool me. Up wi' that pennant. What the h — 1 
 are ye gapin' at.^* " 
 
 Three other flags were now flying from the Nova 
 Scotiaman, and the captain read : C. L. J. Then he 
 turned to his book. 
 
 " Ship," he said. " What on earth does he mean? 
 Answer." 
 
 Breen, who had lowered the pennant, again ran 
 it up. He had not unhooked it from the halyards, 
 and the captain noticed it. 
 
 " He's a gentleman's man, and a yacht-owner's 
 valet," muttered the captain, as he studied another 
 
186 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 signal from the stranger. " I wonder if he knows 
 what B. Q. K. J. means? " Glancing suspiciously 
 at Breen's fixed face, he consulted the book. 
 
 " Geographical signal," he said, turning the 
 leaves. " Maine — ^battle-ship Maine — that's what 
 he's saying. What next?" 
 
 He read another signal, then another, and another, 
 each following in rapid succession, jotting down the 
 interpretations as he read them in the book. Then 
 he read aloud: "Battle-ship Maine — destroyed — 
 Havana — February 15. Since we sailed! " he added, 
 excitedly. " Answer that, and stand by." 
 
 He turned the leaves, studied a page, and said, 
 " Run up C. G. M." 
 
 " C. G. M., sir?" answered Breen, fumbling the 
 flags as excitedly as Captain Bilker fumbled the 
 leaves of the book. " Did you say, C. G. M., sir, or 
 C. G. N.?" 
 
 " What'd I tell you," yelled the captain, reopen- 
 ing the book. " Keep yer ears open. C. G. N. That 
 asks if there's any chance o' war. Now up wi' it, 
 now that ye know all 'bout it." 
 
 Breen, with sparkling eyes, changed the signal, 
 and Dick overhead mingled wonder as to the fate 
 of his old ship and shipmates with appreciation of 
 Breen's ability to take care of himself. 
 
 But the signal did not leave the deck. The ex- 
 cited skipper, to hurry matters, had bent the end 
 of the halyards to the loop of the upper flag while 
 Breen changed the lower. He made a slippery hitch, 
 and as Breen hauled on the other part the flags 
 dropped and the end went aloft. 
 
 " Ketch it ! " shouted the captain to Dick. 
 *' Ketch tliat end 'fore it unrccves." 
 
 It was out of Dick's reach, but he danced up the 
 
BARBARISM 187 
 
 rigging after it. To no avail, however; the higher 
 it went, the lighter it got, and the halyards whizzed 
 tiirough the sheave on the gaff and settled in a tangle 
 on the house and deck. Captain Bilker's rage was 
 akin to insanity. 
 
 " Get up there," he screamed to Breen. " Take 
 that end aloft an' reeve it off, you infernal monkey. 
 Don't wait to say yer prayers. Up wi' you ! " 
 
 Breen answered quietly, took the end and mounted 
 the weather rigging, meeting Dick, who had come 
 down to his work. 
 
 " Don't get on that gaff till you seize off the lift," 
 said Dick, softly. " It's chafed through, and he 
 knows it. And he's suspicious of you. Just learned 
 it. Here's a piece of marline." 
 
 " You say he knows it ? " 
 
 " Reported it myself this morning." 
 
 «AU right." 
 
 Breen took the length of marline and went aloft, 
 while Captain Bilker improved the delay by walking 
 back and forth and glaring unspeakable things at 
 Dick. He could not but have understood the mean- 
 ing of the short talk and the transfer of marline, yet 
 when Breen, having reached the monkey-gaff at the 
 topmast cross-tree, instead of climbing out on the 
 smooth pole, made fast the end of halyards and 
 climbed to the lift above at the cap, he broke forth 
 into a tirade of profanity. 
 
 " Get out an' reeve off them halyards," he roared 
 between oaths. " D'ye hear, up there, you white- 
 livered whelp? What's the matter wi' ye? " 
 
 To which Breen, busy at the seizing, made no 
 response. He finished, descended to the gaff, climbed 
 out and rove the halyards, and overhauled the end 
 to the deck. Captain Bilker caught it, and, hitching 
 
188 MASTERS OF ^lEN 
 
 it to the flags, hoisted the signal, while Breen de- 
 scended. His face was very pale as he passed Dick 
 in the rigging, and he said: 
 
 " That lift wouldn't have held the weight of a 
 poodle dog. He was willing I should fall." 
 
 As Breen reached the deck the captain was jotting 
 down a reading of a new signal, obviously too en- 
 grossed now to punish Breen. " Up wi' the answerin' 
 pennant," he said, and watched the signals through 
 the glasses. Then he seized the book and turned 
 the leaves. 
 
 " America," he muttered. " War expected between 
 America and — what next.? " 
 
 Again he peered through the glasses. 
 
 " Up wi' that pennant again," he said, over his 
 shoulder, and Breen, who had abstracted an iron 
 belaying-pin from the fife-rail, tucked it into 
 his belt and obeyed. The captain consulted the 
 book. 
 
 " D. F. W.," he muttered. " What is it? Span- 
 ish! War expected between America and Spain," he 
 declared, solemnly, as he looked up. " Mr. Thorpe," 
 he called to the mate, now on the forecastle deck, 
 " come ! — " 
 
 " Yes, you murdering devil," interrupted Breen, 
 with the belaying-pin over his shoulder. His face 
 was still white, but his words came forth with a busi- 
 ness-like distinctness quite at variance with the gentle 
 speech of the gentleman's man. " And in the name 
 of the United States government I take charge of 
 this ship. Do you surrender, quietly, and instantly, 
 or shall I kill you where you stand? " 
 
 " Wha — what? What you say?" stammered the 
 captain, backing away. 
 
 " I am a government officer," said Breen, follow- 
 
BARBARISM 189 
 
 ing, his iron club high over his head. " Do you give 
 me charge of this ship? " 
 
 " No, by heaven? I'll see you and the gov — " 
 
 The heavy iron belay ing-pin came down, and the 
 captain fell like a sack of meal. 
 
 " Down from aloft, Halpin," called Breen, but 
 Dick was already stepping out of the rigging. " The 
 game is up. Did you hear? The country's expect- 
 ing war. Don't let the mate into the cabin. Kill him 
 if necessary." 
 
 " Very good, sir," answered Dick, securing another 
 iron club similar to Breen's. The ensign descended 
 the after companion, while Dick vaulted over the 
 monkey-rail and sprang off the poop into the path 
 of Mr. Thorpe, hurrying aft in response to the cap- 
 tain's call. 
 
 How easy it was — after the first blow was struck. 
 Dick faced the terrible first mate with a smile on 
 his face and joy in his heart. 
 
 " Stop where you are," he said, calmly. " Ensign 
 Breen, of the United States navy, has confiscated 
 this ship and orders me to kill you if you make 
 trouble. Understand? " 
 
 " Going to kill me, are you? Why? What have 
 I done that I'm to be killed?" Mr. Thorpe backed 
 away, and Dick followed. There was no fear in the 
 face or the voice of the mate, even though he had 
 seen the young man before him thrash the big Pig 
 Jones that morning. But with his arm in a sling 
 he was not at present fighting with fists or against 
 them ; neither was he opposing iron belaying-pins. 
 He was simply the signed first officer of this ship, 
 whose life was threatened, and he took the right and 
 proper course of action. With a sudden side spring 
 he drew a revolver and fired left-handed at Dick; 
 
190 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 but he missed, and proved that his excellent marks- 
 manship with the marline-spike was merely accidental. 
 Dick rushed toward him, and the officer fired again as 
 he retreated. Dick followed on, in a frenzy borne of 
 his danger, risking death because he loved life, seek- 
 ing only to get at this man who was trying to kill 
 him. Around the booby hatch they maneuvered — 
 around the capstan, back to the poop steps, and for- 
 ward again until, at the main fife-rail, as the mate 
 paused to fire his fifth shot, a report rang out from 
 the poop, and he whirled around in his tracks with 
 arms extended, reeled, fell, and lay quiet on the deck. 
 Dick turned, and saw the ensign lowering a smoking 
 rifle from his shoulder. 
 
 " Down from aloft, everybody," sang out Breen. 
 " Halpin, come here ! " Dick approached and re- 
 ceived a revolver handed down to him. " Call the 
 second mate — call the watch, forward there!" he 
 added in a voice which the men scrambling down 
 from the rigging had not heard before. 
 
 Sawyer appeared; the firing had awakened him. 
 He rubbed his eyes as he looked at the quiet form on 
 the deck amidships; then he looked at Dick, care- 
 lessly holding his pistol muzzle down, and at Breen 
 above on the house. 
 
 " Sawyer," said Breen, " the United States ex- 
 pects war with Spain, and I've taken charge of this 
 ship as a naval officer. I think I've killed the mate 
 and I think I've killed the skipper. Shall I kill you, 
 too, or will 3'ou take orders from me? " 
 
 " Don't kill me, sir," answered Sawyer, with a 
 deprecatory gesture, while the slightest trace of a 
 smile came to his face. " I submit to a show of force. 
 I'll take orders from anybody with a gun. Just tell 
 me what I'm to do, sir." 
 
BARBARISM 191 
 
 " Get all hands aft here at once." 
 
 " Very good, sir." 
 
 The speech which Breen made to the men when 
 they appeared before him was short, sharp, and 
 expressive. In it he stated his position with regard 
 to the government and the law. He granted permis- 
 sion for any and all of them to disbelieve him before 
 his future handling of the ship and themselves con- 
 vinced them of the truth of his words, but promised 
 instant death to the first man who should act on his 
 disbelief. To which the men, with wonder and shock 
 in their faces, made no response. They shuffled their 
 feet uneasily, looking at each other, at the com- 
 plaisant second mate, at the stern-faced Dick, and at 
 the sterner-faced young man on the house who had 
 won their regard by his gentleness, politeness, and 
 deference to their superiority. Eight bells at the 
 wheel struck while Breen waited for their answer, 
 and with an impatient gesture he said, " Mr. Sawyer, 
 send two men up here to lift the captain down to the 
 mizzen hatch." 
 
 " Very good, sir," answered Sawyer, with a man- 
 of-war's-man's salute. " Wagner — Swanson, bear a 
 hand here. Up on the house wi' you and bring the 
 skipper down." 
 
 The two men hesitated, looking at each other and 
 around at their shipmates ; then they looked up at 
 Breen, slowly bringing his rifle to his shoulder, and 
 started for the steps. Their example seemed to de- 
 cide the rest ; when Sawyer ordered two others to 
 carry the mate to the hatch, they obeyed readily. 
 
 The captain was carried down and laid beside the 
 mate ; then Breen called out ; " Strike eight bells. 
 Dinner, the watch," and the men moved slowly for- 
 ward. Breen had mastered them. 
 
192 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 NEITHER the captain nor the mate was dead. 
 While Breen, Dick, and Sawyer examined them 
 on the hatch, the mate quivered convulsively, rolled 
 over on his side, and relapsed into half consciousness. 
 Breen's bullet had glanced from his skull. A little 
 later, Captain Bilker arose to a sitting posture and 
 stared at them with sleepy eyes while he uttered a 
 sound that was half groan, half growl. Breen 
 breathed a deep sigh of relief, and Dick, with his 
 pistol at the captain's head, could yet notice that 
 the ensign was deadly pale, that his hand trembled, 
 land that drops of perspiration collected as fast as 
 he brushed them away. 
 
 " I'm glad — it's better — I'm glad, now," he said, 
 brokenly, " that I didn't kill them. They both de- 
 serve it, of course, but they ought to do it them- 
 selves. Mr. Sawyer," he added, " get leg irons out 
 and shackle them together by the ankles, left to right 
 —right to left." 
 
 Sawyer disappeared in the cabin, and Captain 
 Bilker, still sitting and regarding them stupidly, still 
 covered by Dick's pistol, broke forth into aimless, 
 senseless abuse. He could not quite grasp the situa- 
 tion ; but when Sawyer had locked his right ankle to 
 the mate's left, and his left to the mate's right, he 
 was sufficiently awakened to ask irrelevant questions, 
 by which time Breen was sufficiently composed to 
 answer and Mr. Thorpe conscious enough to listen. 
 
 " What you doin', anyhow — what you put the 
 darbies on us for? " he asked with a snarl. 
 
 " We ironed 3^ou," answered Breen, incisively, " to 
 keep you quiet — to restrain you from any futile and 
 
BARBARISM 193 
 
 intemperate action. You Tviil remain in irons until 
 released by the order of the nearest consul." 
 
 " We will, hey? D'ye know this is mutiny? D'ye 
 know I'm captain o' this ship? " 
 
 " I know that you were captain ; but you are de- 
 prived of command by a representative of the United 
 States government. I am a naval officer, as I have 
 unavailingly told you before, and my acts will be 
 upheld by any official you may appeal to. Do you 
 understand that you, and your ship, and your own- 
 ers, and your combined value to the commerce of 
 America, are of small importance compared with the 
 country's need of her officers and seamen when war 
 threatens ? I waive all consideration of your attempt 
 on my life this morning, and rest my case on the fact 
 that you were restraining me from my duty — taking 
 me to sea when I am needed in the navy. So, as 
 you are of a troublesome, dissatisfied disposition you 
 will be confined in irons on forecastle rations until we 
 quit this ship." 
 
 " How'll you quit — in the middle o' the South At- 
 lantic? Why didn't you make it clear — why didn't 
 you prove yourself, if you belong to the navy. I 
 didn't know." 
 
 " Yes, you did, you scoundrel," said Breen, 
 angrily. " You came to that knowledge this morn- 
 ing, when I failed to conceal my acquaintance with 
 signal flags. Instead of recognizing my claim, you 
 tried to murder me. You sent me aloft to a job 
 which would have killed me had I not been warned." 
 
 " And I'm d — sorry," spluttered the captain in a 
 burst of rage, " that you didn't come down by the 
 run and break yer neck. Take these irons off my 
 legs, and I'll land you at the nearest port and be 
 d — d to you." 
 
194 MASTERS OF IVIEN 
 
 *' This will do," said Brecn, coldly. " Stand up, 
 the pair of you." 
 
 The mate had by this time assumed a sitting post- 
 ure, but was hardly in condition to speak. 
 
 " Stand up," repeated Breen. " Catch one another 
 by the shoulders and stand up, or we'll lift you witli 
 ropes around your necks. Quickly ! " 
 
 Breen's earnestness was more than evident. They 
 looked at his stern countenance, forward to the ob- 
 servant watch on deck clustered near the galley door, 
 and into each other's eyes. Then they gripped each 
 other's coat sleeves and hove themselves erect. 
 
 " March," commanded Breen, " to the poop steps, 
 climb them, and make your way to the lazarette 
 hatch." 
 
 The captain backing, and the wakening mate fol- 
 lowing unsteadily, they moved in this reversed lock- 
 step to the poop stairs, which they mounted slowly 
 and painfully. Then they passed along the alley, 
 cursing their victors furiously as they went, and 
 stumbled around before the amazed helmsman to the 
 lazarette hatch. Sawyer was ahead of them and 
 lifted the cover. Breen and Dick were close behind. 
 
 " Down you go," said Breen. " Remember that I 
 am the legitimate commander of this ship, empowered 
 by law to enforfe my orders with powder and shot." 
 
 He held his rifle carelessly in line with their heads, 
 and Dick still carried the revolver. They seated 
 themselves on the hatcli combing, inserted their legs, 
 and floundered down to the flooring below. 
 
 " You will be ironed by the legs to a stanchion," 
 said Breen, looking down; "but your hands will be 
 left free, and you will receive medical attention ; 
 you will be closely watched, however, and an}' overt 
 act of resistance or insubordination will result in 
 
BARBARISM 195 
 
 your death. I will shoot you in irons. Mr. Sawyer, 
 make them fast to a stanchion, and tell the steward 
 to nurse their hurts and feed them the forecastle 
 allowance." 
 
 " Very good, sir." And Sawyer went forward 
 with a joyous grin on his face, while Breen mounted 
 the house and went to the mizzen-mast. 
 
 " Come up here, Halpin," he said. 
 
 He was examining the Nova Scotiaman through 
 the glasses when Dick reached his side. 
 
 *' We'll ask a few more questions," he said. " We 
 know that the Maine is destroyed, and that war is 
 expected — that is all." Breen consulted the code- 
 book. " Lucky I remembered what C. G. N. meant," 
 he added, turning the leaves. " It's a stock question 
 in all navies. The skipper would have signaled the 
 next letters above, which merely make an irrelevant 
 statement. We might not have got this news. Run up 
 C. B. T., and ask if there are any men-of-war about." 
 
 Dick hoisted this signal, and the other ship re- 
 sponded with a series which Breen interpreted and 
 jotted down on the captain's envelope. When 
 finished, he read to Dick: 
 
 " Spanish Temerario, Montevideo — American Buf- 
 falo, purchased, Rio Janeiro — American Oregon, 
 sailed, San Francisco, March 19, Cuba." 
 
 " The Oregon sailed March 19th," said Breen when 
 he had done some multipl3ang on the envelope. " She 
 must be off the Horn, now, or in the Straits. She'll 
 likely coal at Punta Arenas, possibly at Montevideo, 
 and surely at Rio. We'll keep away from Monte- 
 video for the present — while the Temerario is around. 
 Our place is Rio. With fair luck we can make Rio in 
 time to j oin the Oregon, and then — war. Know what 
 it means, Halpin.'' " 
 
196 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 "Are you sure, sir, that we'll have it? " 
 
 " We've got to. I won't have it otherwise. 
 
 " We'll ask more news," said Breen at length, turn- 
 ing the leaves. " Hook on D. H. C. L. That asks, 
 'how many were killed?' Then we'll give the 
 Maine's name." 
 
 The answer to these signals was a couple of hoists 
 which indicated " two hundred and sixty." 
 
 " That'll be enough," said Breen. " Two hundred 
 and sixty — some of them our friends, perhaps. I 
 knew all her officers. Oh, there'll be war, Dick. Run 
 up the ensign and dip it. Funny, but I feel better." 
 
 The steward joined them as Dick hoisted the en- 
 sign. 
 
 " Where will you eat, sir? " he asked, respectfully. 
 
 " At the cabin table as master of this ship," said 
 Breen. " This is Mr. Halpin, first mate. Treat him 
 as such. Mr. Sawyer is still second mate, and there 
 will be no change in his position for the present. Call 
 him to dinner and serve him at once. Then prepare 
 tlie bath-tub and procure from the slop chest two 
 suits of clothing, the best that you have, — shirts, 
 underclothing, socks, shoes, everything complete." 
 
 " Yes, sir — yes, sir." 
 
 The steward went down, most certainly impressed. 
 
 At one bell, before the port watch went to dinner, 
 Breen braced the ship sharp on the port tack; and 
 thougli the men, when they began the work, moved 
 with a deliberation that was a sure index of their 
 doubt £Mid dissatisfaction, it left them before many 
 of Breen's sharp, clear-cut orders burst over their 
 heads; and later in the afternoon, when he took 
 sights for his longitude with Captain Bilker's sextant, 
 they gave evidence of being as fully impressed as was 
 the steward. 
 
BARBARISM 197 
 
 Le roi est mort. Vive le roi! Great is the powei' 
 of promise and powder and shot ! 
 
 Three weeks later, with the Sugar Loaf bearing 
 ahead and to port, Breen took his eyes from a spot 
 on the southern horizon to back the mainyards and 
 receive a Rio Janeiro pilot. 
 
 " What's the news from the United States ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 " War declared on Spain nine days ago. Didn't 
 you know? Havana's blockaded, and we're on the 
 lookout here for the Oregon and Marietta. Seen any- 
 thing of 'em? " 
 
 "What do you make of that?" answered Breen, 
 handing him the binoculars, and pointing to the 
 southward. The pilot looked. 
 
 " Oregon," he said, shortly. " The Marietta is 
 just astern of her. Just my luck. I'd ha' taken her 
 in if you hadn't come along." 
 
 The spot grew larger and took on form, — a broad- 
 beamed, one-raasted, two-funneled floating fortress, — 
 rushing along at steam-yacht speed, with the pygmy 
 consort in her wake. At the entrance to the harbor 
 the two passed the Mary Earl, the big battle-ship 
 ploughing up a bow wave halfway to the top of her 
 ram bow, her funnels belching, her engines hum.ming 
 — hundreds of white-clad men dotting her deck. 
 
 " Halpin, we're just in time," said Breen, with 
 glistening eyes. " We'll report to her captain in- 
 stead of the consul. It will save complications. We'll 
 go north in the Oregon." 
 
 "And the ship?" asked Dick. 
 
 " Can take care of herself. The official log has our 
 confessions. Let Sawyer report to the consul." 
 
 They left the Mary Earl in a shore boat. Sawyer 
 and the little steward waving hands at the gangway, 
 
198 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 the crew cheering from the rail and rigging. But 
 there was one discordant note in the godspeed. Pig 
 Jones, rejuvenated and revengeful, appeared on the 
 top of the forward house with an apronful of po- 
 tatoes, which he threw at them until they were out 
 of range. Then they heard him dare the remonstrat- 
 ing Sawyer to fight. 
 
 " She is still a hellship," said Breen. 
 
 BOOK IV 
 CIVILIZATION 
 CHAPTER XLI 
 
 IT is night on the Santiago blockade — a hot July 
 night conducive to profanity and excessive liba- 
 tions at the scuttle-butt; a night when men breathe 
 the muggy air with extra muscular effort, and care 
 little for their speech or personal appearance ; when 
 officers don pajamas and maintain dignity with white 
 uniform caps — when seamen strip to underclothing, 
 and, unspokenly, consign dignity to the lower 
 regions. 
 
 There are three lines to this blockade: an outside 
 semicircle of the heavy ships, — turreted fighters, 
 with range of gun fire greater than the radius ; an 
 inner line of torpedo boats, converted yachts, and 
 swift tugs, — messengers and despatch bearers, tlie 
 light cavalry of a fleet ; within this crescent, a row 
 of small steam launches, — lookouts, — well supplied 
 with binoculars, and with but one note of alarm ex- 
 pected and hoped of them — the signal tliat the im- 
 
CIVILIZATION 199 
 
 prisoned fleet within had shown signs of breaking 
 bonds. A brilliant pencil of light, a point at its 
 seaward end, a broad refulgence where it impinges 
 on the rocky shores of the harbor mouth, indicates 
 the presence, on the second line, of the search-light 
 ship, — a detailed monster of the outside semicircle 
 with steam sufficient for the candle power. She is 
 relieved every four hours, and the change is the only 
 diversion of the night to the overstrained nerves 
 of the picket crews. 
 
 On the second line, with bow inshore and all lights 
 out but the binnacle lamp in the conning-tower, lay 
 a dun-colored torpedo-boat ; and close up in the bow, 
 sprawled face up on the turtle-back, with feet rest- 
 ing on the low hand-rail, lay Dick Halpin. He was 
 not sleeping ; he was thinking. Back of him on the 
 turtle-back, and farther back on the main deck, lay 
 his shipmates, in all postures and in a common frame 
 of mind. Spasmodically and earnestly they reviled 
 the night, the heat, the luck, — and each other. They 
 anathematized the war, the Spanish, the boat and her 
 equipment, — everything within their ken on that hot 
 night came under the ban but the officer who com- 
 manded and the admiral who had condemned them. 
 
 Dick, to escape the ceaseless grumbling, which 
 could not wholly voice his own discontent, had sought 
 the farthest corner, and lay in this attitude most 
 conducive to philosophy, trying to solve the past and 
 probe the future. He was the avowed friend of a 
 man whom he had hated intensely a few months be- 
 fore — a man who had admitted hating him then, and 
 had since won his regard in spite of himself, who had 
 sounded his praises to two ships' companies, and 
 had secured him his present rating of signalman 
 in the torpedo-boat of which he himself had been 
 
200 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 given command. Dick had been called aft on the 
 quarter-deck of the Oregon and introduced by the 
 enthusiastic Breen as " Mr." Halpin to a group of 
 kindly-eyed officers, who, from the captain down, 
 shook his hand, and complimented him upon his skill 
 with his fists. Dick gathered that Breen had de- 
 scribed his terrible fight with the giant Pig Jones. 
 These men were gentlemen, and their congratula- 
 tions were sincere ; yet he wondered if they would 
 have complimented one of themselves as highly, if 
 Breen would have been so enthusiastic if the feat had 
 been his own. Later, this was repeated on board the 
 flagship, which they had joined at Key West, and he 
 had listened to kind words from the brave-faced ad- 
 miral, who told him that he hoped to hear further 
 from him before the war ended. This was well — 
 more than well ; but against it was the influence of his 
 early training. He possessed courage, surely, which 
 he shared with bulldogs. It was the commonest of 
 human attributes, and it was not enough. Intelli- 
 gence — education — breeding.'* Possibly. But op- 
 portunity — the accident of time, place, and environ- 
 ment — was necessary to bring tangible recognition 
 and reward for the best of inherent aptitudes, and it 
 had been denied him. It had come to Breen, but not 
 yet to him. Would the war bring it, as the admiral 
 had hoped? He had been relegated to a torpedo- 
 boat, which ran errands in the day and did picket 
 duty at night. He had watched, safely out of range, 
 three bombardments of the forts, and envied men 
 the wild joy of being under fire. He had volunteered 
 among the hundreds who had responded to the call 
 for men to take the Merrimac in, but others were 
 chosen, and he had watched them go by, to death — or 
 opportunity. 
 
CIVILIZATION 201 
 
 If opportunity should come to him, he would seize 
 it ; if not, he would be of age in a couple of months ; 
 his time in the navy would be up, and there would be 
 something due him from his mother's estate. This 
 he would collect quickly and hurry to the other side 
 of the continent, where Breen's wedding bells could 
 not disturb him. Then Mabel's face came before 
 him, and all philosophy left him. 
 
 CHAPTER XLII 
 
 **¥ TALPIN," came a low voice from the dark- 
 XJ. ness amidships. " Halpin," it sounded, 
 nearer. " Pass the word, there, for Halpin." His 
 Barae was repeated by others, and he arose to his 
 feet. 
 
 " The old man wants ye," said a man old enough 
 to be Breen's father. 
 
 Dick found Breen close up to the stem, in about 
 the same attitude which he himself had assumed 
 forward, — flat on his back, with his head pillowed 
 on the bed of the torpedo tube. 
 
 "Want me, sir? " he asked, saluting in the dark- 
 ness. 
 
 " Yes, Dick. Lie down here, and never mind the 
 *sir.' We're aboard the hellship for a time, and 
 there's no one near. I want to talk to you." 
 
 Dick stretched himself beside his captain, and 
 Breen, after a full minute's silence, said softly and 
 slowly : 
 
 "I got letters to-day. Did you?" 
 
 " No," answered Dick. " No one writes to me." 
 
 " They write about you, however. I wrote from 
 Jupiter Inlet to Miss Arthur, explaining where I'd 
 disappeared to, and telling about you and something 
 
20« MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 of our experience together. I got her answer to-daj 
 — been chasing me all around the fleet. She is very 
 glad that 3'ou did not desert, and says that she ex- 
 pects to see you coming home an officer." 
 
 " An officer ! " gulped Dick, his heart beating 
 painfully, and his face burning. " Did she — really — 
 speak of me? An officer! But that means an ' officer 
 and a gentleman.' Shall you write to h^r again?" 
 
 " Of course." 
 
 " Will you tell her, please, that I am grateful for 
 her interest in me, and that though it is impossible 
 for me under the law to come home an officer, I may 
 come home a gentleman. And say that I am heartily 
 ashamed of my manner and language in the bridge 
 car, and thoroughly sorry — and that I hope she will 
 pardon and forget it." 
 
 " Right, I will," laughed Breen. " What did you 
 do? Lay her out for looking at you in your old 
 ducks and coal dust? She laid me out for it." 
 
 " Worse," growled Dick, disgustedly. " I insulted 
 her. I'm nothing but a cad, after all." 
 
 " She doesn't waste her time on cads, Dick," said 
 Breen, gently ; " but what kind of a reputation have 
 you up there in that town? We've had our names 
 in the papers. You are supposed to have murdered 
 me that night, disposed of my body, and escaped. 
 Hence our disappearance." 
 
 " Oh, I know," said Dick, as he thought of the 
 clipping Bessie had sent him. " My reputation will 
 admit of anything ; but there is one thing cleared up, 
 which I have learned about lately. Did you know 
 that I left home four years ago a proven thief? " 
 
 " Why, no — I heard about it ; but you were cleared 
 at the time, weren't you ? " 
 
 " Yes, but I didn't know it. I didn't know imtil 
 
CIVILIZATION S03 
 
 lately. All these years I thought I was considered 
 a jailbird at home, and that's what made me so ready 
 to lick that crowd. Pig Jones told me at the wheel 
 one night when he was drunk enough to talk to me,; 
 but I didn't speak to you about it on account — " 
 He hesitated. 
 
 *' I understand, Dick. Yes, — a brother officer. 
 He's out there now, bullying good men. An officer 
 and a gentleman. No, the government made him 
 an officer, but — the most unpopular man in his class, 
 they say. I heard about that scrape at school long 
 before I met you — not from his sister, however — 
 from a friend of hers. You certainly acted the gen- 
 tleman, Dick, until, of course, you were driven to 
 desperation. But — I wish I could have seen that 
 chase over the desks." Breen finished with a laugh. 
 
 ** I always wanted to be a gentleman," said Dick, 
 gloomily ; " but the navy toughens a man, and 
 knocks it out of him. But at that time," he raised 
 his voice slightly, " I'd a better right to the title 
 than he. But his father was rich and put him into 
 the Academy, while I — " 
 
 "Rich.?" queried Breen; "not so very rich — ^not 
 so rich, I think, as Richard Halpin, seaman gunner 
 for Uncle Sam. What made you ship, anyway, with 
 all that money coming to you? " 
 
 "Money?" repeated Dick. "Yes, there was a 
 little due me when I came of age." 
 
 " Four hundred and fifty thousand dollars are 
 waiting for you, up in that little town, Miss Arthur 
 says. The lawyers are looking for you." 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed Dick, sitting up. 
 
 " That's what she says. Your mother left you 
 fifty thousand, and your uncle — you know he is dead, 
 don't you? " Dick nodded in the darkness. 
 
204. MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " Your uncle died intestate, and you are next of 
 kin. Four hundred thousand more. Whew ! — and 
 I've nothing but my pay. No wonder the girls like 
 you, Dick." There was a little bitterness in the 
 slight laugh with which Breen concluded. 
 
 " But why didn't I know this ? Why did no one 
 tell me? " 
 
 " Couldn't find you. No one knew where you were. 
 I told Miss Arthur on the day you cleaned out the 
 town ; and I suppose you were shanghaied before the 
 news got to the lawyer." 
 
 " Four hundred and fifty thousand dollars," mut- 
 tered Dick, as his mind flashed back to his boj'ish 
 plans for study and advancement. " Why, a man 
 could be a gentleman very easily with all that money, 
 couldn't he.?" 
 
 " Yes, some kinds of a gentleman — all kinds, if he 
 is bom one. But the best society in the land will 
 welcome you, Dick. Cut your hair, and tune up a 
 little when your time's out. You're all right." 
 
 " But it's not all — not enough. Do you know that 
 I'd give it all for an appointment to Annapolis.? " 
 
 " All the money in the world wouldn't bu}' the 
 appointment at your age. You're too old, and only 
 the President could send you there. There may be 
 a chance in this mix if you do good work and tlie 
 admiral recommends you. Why, with your start you 
 could rush through in two years." 
 
 " Then give me what chance you can," said Dick, 
 vehemently. " Give me risky work — the craziest that 
 comes along. I'll do it." 
 
 Breen did not answer. He stood erect and ele- 
 vated a pair of binoculars. " Something up," he 
 remarked. Dick also arose to his feet, and a man 
 Imrricd aft with the information that the search- 
 
CIVILIZATION 205 
 
 light was shifting, and that lights were moving about 
 at the harbor mouth. 
 
 " I see," answered Breen, the glasses still to his 
 eyes. " Watch the flagship, and see what is said. 
 The pickets are signaling." 
 
 Colored lights were showing from the inside line ; 
 the beam of light from the battle-ship on station was 
 wavering — reaching to the right and left, exposing 
 in its vivid glare first one shore, then the other. But 
 barring two or three twinkling points in the darkness 
 without the glare, nothing could be seen, even 
 through Breen's binoculars. 
 
 " The flagship is signaling, sir," said Dick, strain- 
 ing his eyes at a vertical row of colored lights far out 
 to sea. " I didn't get the first of it, but she seems 
 to be telling the search-light ship to do something — 
 there it is, sir — launch. A reconnoitering job." 
 
 "Anything for us yet.'' " 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 " We'll wait. Watch out." 
 
 Dick went forward, returning with a pair of 
 glasses, and, as was his duty, kept close watch for 
 signals ; but nothing showed. The minutes went by, 
 while the twinkling points shoreward went out in the 
 blackness, and the wavering search-light settled down 
 to its steady scrutiny of the channel. Presently the 
 humming of a small engine sounded in the distance, 
 and soon after a small gray spot on the water took 
 on the form and detail of a steam launch, coming 
 toward them from seaward. 
 
 " Boat ahoy ! " called Breen softly as the launch 
 drew near. The engine stopped. 
 
 " Hello," answered a voice — which Dick recog- 
 nized. "Is that you, Mr. Breen.''" 
 
 "Yes. What's up.?" 
 
206 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " I'll come alongside." 
 
 The launch came quietly up to the quarter, and 
 George Arthur stepped aboard. 
 
 " I'm caught," he said to Breen as they ^ook 
 hands. " Fact is, I'm sent in to find out what they're 
 doing — and that's all. I'm supposed to do some 
 signaling, and, hang it, I haven't had time to learn 
 the code; and as for the nightly change, why, I left 
 it aboard. Can you give it to me? " 
 
 " I can do better — give you my signalman. Take 
 him along and take his advice." 
 
 " Thanks — by George, yes ; I'm a thousand times 
 obliged. I've got to go in, and if there's anything 
 up I must flash it out to them. Now I feel better." 
 
 " Go along, Halpin," said Breen, tersely. 
 
 " Halpin ? " queried the young cadet. " Well — 
 say, now, Mr. Breen, isn't this a little — he's a pet of 
 yours, I know, but — " 
 
 " You have applied to me for a signalman, and I 
 give you the best I have," interrupted Breen, sternly. 
 " You can suit yourself, sir." 
 
 " Oh, well, all right — all right, sir," answered the 
 other. " Send him aboard when you're ready, sir." 
 
 He strode toward the rail and stepped aboard the 
 launch. " Go along, Dick," said Breen, softly. " If 
 he gets into trouble, get him out of it. I'll see to 
 the credit." 
 
 " Thank you. Bully for you," was Dick's unsea- 
 manly answer to his officer. Then he jumped into 
 the launch. 
 
 " Go ahead," ordered the cadet ; and the engine 
 started. " I am told," he said sourly to Dick, " to 
 take your advice. If I need it, I'll call on you." 
 
 " Very good, sir," returned Dick, quietly, as he 
 seated himself beside him. 
 
CIVILIZATION 207 
 
 The little craft shot ahead into the blackness be- 
 neath and without that brilliant shaft from the 
 search-light. The young officer had the wheel. 
 There were two other men in the cockpit, silently 
 crouching with elbows on their knees, and aft 
 in the other cockpit a machinist in charge of the 
 engine. 
 
 Nothing more was said; the launch traversed the 
 short two miles to the harbor mouth, passing the 
 inner picket line unseen and unbailed, Dick ponder- 
 ing on the strange hatred which this pampered young 
 gentleman had felt for him since the trouble in 
 school. This was their first personal interview since 
 that exciting chase over red desks, but George Arthur 
 had been on the New York's quarter-deck when he 
 had been called aft to meet the officers, and had 
 shown his attitude toward him in the derisive smile 
 that had come to his face, and in the superior stare 
 with which he had regarded him every time that 
 chance had thrown Dick into his path. 
 
 " We must be close in, sir," suggested the ma- 
 chinist, softly. " Shall I slow down so as to quiet 
 the engine a little ? " 
 
 " Yes — yes," answered Arthur, quickly. " Slow 
 down — stop altogether. I can't see a thing. Can 
 any one see? " 
 
 " Morro's broad on the starboard bow, sir," said 
 Dick, whose eyes were good. 
 
 " And there's land right ahead — high land," said 
 the engineer, 
 
 " Right — I see. Must be Socapa. Where the 
 deuce were those lights, anyhow? What am I to 
 find out in here? Nothing going on that I see." 
 
 *' There was a log boom across the channel a little 
 farther in, sir," said one of the men. " If it is still 
 
208 MASTERS OF Z.IEX 
 
 there, it proves that no torpedo-boats are out to- 
 night." 
 
 " But if we get that far," added Dick, " we might 
 not get back." 
 
 " I told you that if I wanted your advice I'd call 
 on you," said the cadet, angrily. " Remember that." 
 
 Dick bit his lip, but blamed only himself. 
 
 '* Go ahead with the machine," ordered the young 
 gentleman. " We'll see about that boom, anyway." 
 
 Dick grinned bitterly. 
 
 The boat went ahead at half speed. In five 
 minutes one of the men in the cockpit, who had been 
 looking astern, said, " Light over to starboard, sir — 
 well abaft the beam." They looked, but saw noth- 
 ing; yet the man repeated that he had seen it, close 
 down to the water. Then a flash as of mild lightning 
 lit up the bluff to starboard, a crackling report fol- 
 lowed, and water splashed in their faces. Then fol- 
 lowed shouts in Spanish, and other shots, while a 
 small search-light from the battlements sought them 
 out, revealing to them as it wandered a clear expanse 
 of channel ahead, a string of logs partly stowed 
 under the batteries, and two armed launches putting 
 out from the small landing astern and to starboard, 
 where the man had seen the light. The search-light 
 from above caught them, and a rapid-fire blast of 
 small shot and shell ensued, while tlie search-light 
 from seaward lifted and flooded the batteries. The 
 two sailors lay quietly down in the bottom of the 
 boat. 
 
 " We've got to got out o' here, sir," said the en- 
 gineer. *' I'll give her full speed, if you'll put the 
 wheel over." 
 
 " Yes, give it to her ! " ycllod the young officer, 
 excitedly, as he ground on the wheel; and tiicn, to 
 
CIVILIZATION 209 
 
 Dick, " This is your fault, d — you. Oh-oh-oh- 
 o-o-o-o-o ! " The speech ended in a groan, and 
 George tumbled to the bottom beside the two sailors. 
 Dick sprang to the wheel. " Give her steam," he 
 called. " We'll have to run in — not out. Mr. Ar- 
 thur's hit. We can't get out now." 
 
 There was no answer, and Dick, looking aft, saw 
 the engineer leaning over the combing of his cockpit, 
 as if he were dozing. 
 
 He steadied the launch up the channel. The 
 engineer had opened the steam valve to its widest, 
 and the little launch stormed ahead, followed by 
 the pitiless search-light from the hill, and pelted 
 by a sputtering fusillade of shot from the batteries 
 and from the pursuing launches astern ; but with 
 four men struck down, the fates seemed satisfied. 
 Dick felt the wind of several shots, felt the grazing 
 of several bullets, and felt water rising over his 
 ankles ; but no harm came to him. He steered on, 
 past the sunken Merrimac, around the eastern face of 
 Smith Cay, — and here the search-light lost him and 
 the gun fire ceased, — across to the western shore of 
 the harbor, and with fires nearly extinct grounded the 
 launch on a shelving beach at the foot of a hill. The 
 pursuing launches had turned back, confident, per- 
 haps, that daylight would show them their quarry. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII 
 
 WITH a little trouble in the darkness, for Dick 
 was not a competent engineer, he shut off 
 steam and regulated the fire; then he examined the 
 men. The machinist was dead, so were the two sail- 
 ors ; they were all strangers to him, and none had 
 
210 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 spoken or voluntarily moved after the shots that had 
 killed them. George Arthur, partly immersed in 
 water at the bottom of the cockpit, was breathing 
 painfully. Dick lifted his head, and gently — for this 
 was Mabel's brother — inquired : " Are you badly 
 hurt, sir.? What can I do? " 
 
 "Is — it — you, Dick.-^ " gasped George, faintly. 
 " I — am — done for, I think. I got — it — in the back 
 — the backbone. I can't — move my — legs. Can — 
 you lift — me out of — the water.'* It smarts — oh, 
 how — it smarts ! " 
 
 Dick lifted him bodily to the transom seat in the 
 cockpit, and pillowed his head on a small cork 
 fender. 
 
 "Where — are — we — now.?" asked George, when 
 his groans had ceased. 
 
 " In the harbor, sir. I've beached her over to the 
 westward. We'll have to sneak out later, when 
 they've stopped looking for us." 
 
 " Yes. Try it. Be careful. It won't matter to 
 me. I'm going — fast, Dick." 
 
 His voice was certainly weaker. 
 
 *' I hope not, sir. If you can hold out until we 
 get to a surgeon — " 
 
 He stopped, realizing the mockery in his words. 
 
 " Dick," said George, after an interval of silence, 
 " I want — you — to forgive me — if — you can, for — 
 that matter — in — school." 
 
 " Oh, don't speak of that, George — don't think 
 of it at all. WTiy, you straightened it all out at the 
 time." 
 
 " Under — compulsion — yes. To — please my — sis- 
 ter. Tell — me you forgive — me." 
 
 " I do," answered Dick, tears starting to his eyes. 
 " With all my heart and soul I do." 
 
CIVILIZATION 211 
 
 There was a silence for a little, then George spoke 
 again. 
 
 " It — was the only tiling — that ever — came — be- 
 tweea us — ^that ever came — between — Mabel and me. 
 She always wanted — me — to write — to you ; but — I 
 would not — not — even for — her. Tell her — that I — 
 did, will you.'* Tell her that I apologized — to you." 
 
 " I will — when I see her," answered Dick in a 
 choked voice. " I'll tell her if you want me to. But 
 it never mattered at all, George." 
 
 " Yes — it — did. I was a cur." 
 
 Plis breathing grew weaker and weaker while Dick 
 held his hand; then he lifted his head a few inches 
 and spoke clearly and distinctly, with the last flutter 
 of strength and prescience which comes to the djdng. 
 
 " Dick," he said, " they were rigging in the log 
 boom across the channel. It means something — a, 
 torpedo attack on the fleet, perhaps. Run the bat- 
 teries and report this to the admiral. It will make 
 you. Then " — his head sank down — ^" go — to — 
 Mabel. Be — good — to — my — sister." 
 
 He said no more ; and Dick did not know the mo- 
 ment when the wayward spirit took flight. He was 
 weeping convulsively, for the first time since the day 
 whe» little Bessie Fleming's sympathy had broken 
 him down and humanized him. 
 
 But there was work to be done. He was in a 
 hostile harbor, with four dead men and a leaky 
 steam launch. Three plans flashed through his mind, 
 each fraught with danger. He could leave the launch 
 to the Spanish and the dead to the buzzards, climb 
 the hill, a,nd strike the coast a mile south ; here. If not 
 caught hy the Spaniards, he might attract the at- 
 tention of one of the small craft of the fleet and be 
 taken off. Or, he could skirt the beach to the east- 
 
21S MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 ward, swim two channels of three or four hundred 
 yards' width, and, if lucky, reach Guantanamo where 
 the ships coaled, or the army in the hills to the 
 northward. Or he could patch up the holes in the 
 launch, make steam, and in the gray of the morning, 
 when the search-light lifted and full light of day had 
 not come to aid the gunners in their aim, he could 
 go out the way that he had come. There was more 
 chance of success in the first two plans than in the 
 last ; but such success would bring him only a few 
 congratulations on his good luck in saving his life. 
 On the other hand, the running of three batteries, 
 the bringing out of the body of an officer, and the 
 report — even a tardy report — of the removal of the 
 log boom, was what he had wished for — opportunit}', 
 which comes to but a favored few. He might die in 
 the attempt, but then — her brother had died. If he 
 lived through it, he would have recognition, honor, 
 promotion — perhaps an appointment to Annapolis. 
 He saw himself in uniform, a commissioned officer of 
 the United States navy — an " officer and a gentle- 
 man " ; and with the tears yet undried on his face 
 his resolution was taken. 
 
 It was about eleven o'clock, and when the launch 
 had grounded the ebb tide, as he reasoned by an in- 
 spection of the beach, was about two hours old. The 
 water had flooded the fire as the boat settled, and 
 now, as the tide receded, it was dribbling out through 
 the shot holes in the bottom. Dick dared not liirht a 
 lantern ; he could only search along the bottom, plank 
 by plank, feeling with his fingers, and stopping each 
 hole as he found it with a plug whittled from a 
 swab handle. The boat lay heeled to starboard, and 
 the holes on tliis side could only be reached from 
 within ; but as the shots had all come from the east 
 
CIVILIZATION 213 
 
 side of the channel, he hoped that there would be 
 few. Most that he found were bullet holes ; but here 
 and there was a ragged aperture made by a one- 
 pound shot, and one gaping hole near the water-line 
 indicated the work of a six-pounder. Before long 
 he realized that the night would be all too short for 
 the task of making that launch seaworthy, and thank- 
 fully computed that the tide could not get back until 
 near daylight. This would leave him scant time to 
 fire up and run out before the morning sun made him 
 too visible for safety; but between broad daylight 
 and the blinding glare of a search-light he would 
 choose the first. 
 
 He found pump-tacks and a hammer in the engi- 
 neer's locker; he cut patches of canvass from the 
 white jumpers of the dead sailors, and tacked thera 
 over all holes too large or too ragged to be plugged. 
 He worked feverishly, pantingly, incessantly, know- 
 ing neither hunger, thirst, nor fear. He was in- 
 spired not so much by patriotism as by Mabel Ar- 
 thur's complimentary injunction to " come home an 
 ofl5cer." 
 
 Da3dight found him haggard and exhausted, with 
 all holes that he had found plugged or patched, with 
 steam hissing hot in the small boiler, and his silent 
 passengers laid out on the forward transoms. It was 
 time to go, and he was ready to go, yet the tide had 
 but just reached the rudder of the launch and would 
 not float it for an hour. And while he waited he 
 watched with burning eyes the panorama unfolding 
 as the darkness gave place to the sudden day of the 
 tropics. 
 
 The launch lay near the middle of a concave of 
 beach, the arc of which ranged about east and west. 
 Off to the west, and farther still to the north, were 
 
214 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 broad reaches of sparkling water, bordered by partly 
 wooded slopes of steep ground. To the east lay the 
 opposite shore of the channel, which at a high bluff a 
 little farther in broke sharply to the northeast and 
 extended in a straight line to the city of Santiago, 
 two miles away. There were a few habitations in 
 sight among the trees, and here and there on the bay 
 small sail and steam craft, which paid no attention 
 to the gray spot on the southern beach. And after 
 a cursory inspection of eacli Dick paid as little at- 
 tention to them. His eyes were fixed on six black 
 craft at anchor just below the city, — four cruisers 
 and two torpedo boats. Bunting was rising and fall- 
 ing from the signal yards of all, and thick, black 
 smoke was belching from the funnels. It was Cer- 
 vera's fleet, and it was getting up steam. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV 
 
 NO mere shifting of berths required all that 
 smoke, and Dick knew it. It meant a full head 
 of steam, and this meant full speed. The ships were 
 going out — to fight or run. Here was his opportu- 
 nity, and he was balked by the tide. He pushed des- 
 perately, but the heavy launch would not move, and 
 in a state bordering on insanity he paced up and 
 down the beacli, until he realized that tlie presence 
 of the launch in the harbor was known, and that his 
 white duck suit made a conspicuous mark against the 
 dull green of tl)e hill behind him. T'.icn he hid in 
 the after cockpit and tried to compose his nerves by 
 grooming the engine. 
 
 An hour he waited, occasionally peeping out at 
 the squadron up the bay, wondering why he was not 
 
CIVILIZATION 215 
 
 sought for by the launches that had chased him in. 
 Then a slight tremor in the boat aroused him to a 
 second effort to launch her. This time, with the help 
 of the reversed engine, he succeeded ; the craft backed 
 and floated, but before he could shift the helm to 
 throw her around he felt water on his feet and knew 
 that somewhere a gaping hole had escaped his notice. 
 The water came too fast for safety, and he saw, 
 by standing erect, that it came from underneath 
 the forward deck, probably on the starboard side of 
 the forefoot, where he had not been able to see or 
 feel. He reversed the engine, heeled the boat to 
 port as it grounded, and set desperately to work. 
 
 He found the leak — the largest hole of all — a 
 whole plank end carried away. There was a small 
 saw in the locker, and with its help he robbed the 
 cockpit combing of a section, and with strenuous 
 effort — digging a hole in the sand for room to wield 
 the hammer — he covered the hole. But it was a flat 
 plank over a concave surface ; there was calking to 
 be done, and over all was needed a canvas patch to 
 protect it from the wash. When the job was done, 
 and he stood erect, dripping wet and faint with 
 hunger and fatigue, the sun was high, and he saw 
 the black ships under way, just leaving their buoys. 
 
 His opportunity was being reduced to a matter of 
 effort expended and good intent ; yet this was enough, 
 could he but beat that squadron out to sea and make 
 his presence known. He sprang aboard, backed the 
 engine under a full head of steam, and the boat 
 pulled slowly off. No more water came in. Steering 
 by the tiller, he threw her around and went ahead, 
 rounding Caracoles Point into the west channel past 
 Smith Cay. He chose this route because, though he 
 risked possible small-arm fire from the inshore side 
 
216 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 of Socapa Battery up on the hill, he would avoid the 
 attention of the mounted guns of the Catalina Bat- 
 tery on the east shore until he rounded Puntilla, 
 nearly abreast. Thankful for the good fortune that 
 had given him access to Breen's charts, he rushed 
 the little craft down the channel by memory of what 
 the charts had told him, turned east toward Puntilla, 
 and had almost reached it, when a fusillade began on 
 the hilltop astern, and a shower of bullets spattered 
 the water. Suddenly he felt a stinging pain in his 
 left thigh, and an almost overpowering weakness came 
 over him; but, seated on the engineer's stool, he 
 managed to keep his balance, and soon the shock of 
 the impact left him, though the stinging pain and the 
 weakness remained. 
 
 The fusillade continued, and out of the comer 
 of his eye he saw men from the Socapa Battery 
 running down the hill to intercept him when he had 
 rounded the point. Some paused to fire at him, and 
 some who remained behind worked at machine guns, 
 turning and training them on the small gray float- 
 ing hearse with its four dead and its wounded driver. 
 Soon these guns belched their message, and larger 
 shot peppered the water around the launch. And 
 Dick, steering wild, barely able to keep his scat, 
 totally unable to feed his fire and replenish steam, yet 
 heard distinctly over the rattle of gun fire the sound 
 of a church bell behind him on Smith Cay, calling 
 the faithful few that had remained on the island to 
 Sunday morning worship. But down on the wharf 
 of the island men had collected with rifles, and a 
 bullet through his left arm told him that Christian 
 brotherhood was elastic. They were trying to kill 
 him — these men of his faith ; and when they had 
 done so, thej' would probably heed the bell. Seeing 
 
CIVILIZATION 217 
 
 dimlj', as though a fog had settled down on the 
 water, he rounded the dock at Caracoles Point, and 
 headed south, immediately receiving the greeting 
 of the Catahna Battery. No shells were sent, but 
 solid shot, large and small, crashed and whistled 
 around his ears. Far out to sea lay a high-bowed 
 battle-ship — the only craft of the American fleet 
 discernible between the jaws of the channel mouth. 
 He strained his dimmed eyes in the effort to focus 
 and identify her, and barely knew the Iowa. She lay 
 bows on to him, silent and inert. His thoughts were 
 hardly coherent now, but with time he would have 
 prayed for interference from that quiet, gray 
 monster out there, one shell from which could silence 
 this venomous hail of lead and steel. He turned, 
 painfully, and looked back. Around Smith Cay was 
 coming the leading ship of the Spanish fleet, a two- 
 funneled, two-masted rara-bowed cruiser, glistening 
 black in the morning sun. Among the battle flags 
 aloft was the flag of an admiral. She was piling up 
 a bow wave bigger than his small launch; she would 
 beat him out, for he was not yet abreast of the 
 Estrella Battery. Over the steep slope of the island 
 he saw the spars of the second in line. There would 
 be an action — in which he could have no share. He 
 would be shot to death before it began. 
 
 But as he looked ahead, half blind in his weak- 
 ness, and endeavored to steady his craft to a 
 straighter course, he became aware that gun fire 
 had ceased. The Catalina Battery was silent, the 
 Estrella had not begun, the riflemen from the Socapa 
 Battery to starboard were leaning on their grounded 
 arms and watching him. At one side stood a Spanish 
 officer with drawn sword, the point of which touched 
 the ground. In his left hand was his cap, which, as 
 
«18 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 Dick looked, he raised to a level with his face, and 
 slowly lowered. Dick's cap was gone, he knew not 
 when or wliere, but, wounded and weak, half-crazed 
 from the ordeal, he yet recognized the chivalry of 
 the act, and responded by lowering his head. Then 
 there came to him a ringing hail in pure English : 
 " Proceed with your dead, American." 
 And the leaky launch, with its crippled helmsman 
 and its cargo of corpses, passed slowly by the Es- 
 trella Batterj'', whose gunners stood up and waved 
 their hands. What signal had flashed back and forth 
 across the channel can only be surmised. Possibly it 
 concerned the shame of firing on an ambulance ; it 
 certainly had no bearing on or reference to Dick's 
 dwindling opportunity — the prompting spirit of that 
 armistice could not have guessed that this lunacy 
 was born of a girl's friendly phrasing of a compli- 
 ment. 
 
 But neither signals nor soldierly ethics influenced 
 the gunners of the Morro batteries at the mouth of 
 the harbor. They received the slowly creeping, half- 
 filled little craft with roaring protests from heavy 
 guns and a shower of projectiles, large and small. 
 The tiller was shot out of Dick's hand, and the launch, 
 a port-helmed craft, sheered out in the channel; a 
 one-pound shot pierced the boiler, and the pent-up 
 steam escaped in a wheezing whistle ; a small sliell 
 exploded in the forward cockpit, disturbing the dead 
 and shattering the bottom ; a fragment of steel 
 ploughed through Dick's already maimed left arm, 
 and he sank in a licap; then, as the launch gently 
 dived to the bottom, he found himself immersed, 
 partly revived by tlie shock of cold water, weakly 
 struggling with liis still iminjured riglit arm and log 
 to reach the surface. Before he did so a huge black 
 
CIVILIZATION 219 
 
 mass struck him in the ribs, and in a rush of water 
 he slid up — ^hung like a limp towel over a rack — en 
 the slanting steel ram of the outbound Spanish flag- 
 ship. 
 
 Clinging desperately to the sharp edge, choking 
 in the small Niagara piled up by the cruiser's rush, 
 he looked up at swarthy faces of men above. They 
 were sailors, and the fraternity of the sea was in 
 them. They slid down with ropes and hauled him up ; 
 then one, smiling like a mother, forced a bottle to his 
 lips and poured whisky down his throat, 
 
 " What you say, eh, sheepmate? " he said, jovially. 
 " What you call him — Datch Careege? I once sheep 
 in Americano sheep. Adios, sheepmate." 
 
 An officer called, and the men went to their stations 
 as a gun spoke to seaward. Dick, lying helpless on 
 the deck, facing aft, warmed by the stimulant to an 
 interest in his surroundings, saw the large Hontoria 
 gun in the forward turret swing slowly to port. 
 Then it belched, and tlie battle was on. 
 
 CHAPTER XLV 
 
 HUNTING is an ancient institution ; it began 
 when the first raonera found others in their 
 way. Man was a hunter when, more brute than 
 human, he fought his enemies with claws and teeth. 
 Then, with the development of his prehensile thumb, 
 he brought to his aid clubs and stones. The club 
 became a mace, later a tomahawk of stone or iron, 
 and for the speedier propulsion of the stone was in- 
 vented the sling. The sling suggested the catapult 
 and the bow ; the edge of the tomahawk prompted the 
 
220 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 knife, the spear, and the sword. Man now called him- 
 self civilized, and with his civilization came a new 
 weapon — brain. Then diplomacy and business 
 method came into vogue as potent weapons in war- 
 fare. Then came gunpowder, and the hollow tube to 
 confine it and direct the projectile driven by its ex- 
 pansion. 
 
 These were great inventions, superseding the spear 
 and the knife, the tomahawk and the bow, leaving 
 only the sword — a cumbersome article of dress. The 
 hollow tube developed into the rapid-fire rifle, the 
 solid projectile into a shell. And to aid this gun to 
 fire its shell to best advantage, science was cultivated, 
 and the battle-ship — the culmination of every art, 
 trade, and invention of civilized man, was produced 
 to carry the gun which fired the shell. But through 
 every change of weapon and method, in battle or in 
 business, man, the hunter, has remained the same. 
 Singly or collectively, as family, tribe, or nation, he 
 succeeds and survives only by the destruction of his 
 enemies. He is still a hunter, and on this bright 
 Sunday moraing, near th.e end of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, Dick Halpin, wounded, faint, and discouraged, 
 played a passive part in one of the fiercest hunts that 
 ever occurred on earth. Ostensibly, it was a duel be- 
 tween the representatives of two warring nations, in 
 reality a chase — of men by men, with victory for a 
 prize, and with the ethical considerations of honor, 
 glory, and patriotism but little in advance of the 
 mercenary consideration of bounty. And the 
 weapons of the hunters were the most deadly devised 
 by inventive genius, ranging from machine guns, 
 capable of sixty shots a minute, through the various 
 grades of larger calibers to turretcd rifles wliich 
 spoke only twelve times an hour, but which sent 
 
CIVILIZATION 221 
 
 pointed cylinders of over half a ton's weight through 
 foot-thick steel walls to explode within. 
 
 Parched with thirst, and bleeding, his arm and 
 leg numb with pain, Dick Halpin lay under the hot 
 sun on the hotter deck, with two rills of pinkish 
 water trickling from his drenched clothing to the 
 scuppers, — one to starboard, one to port, — and took 
 such cognizance of the hunt as was in his power. 
 Facing aft, he saw officers on the bridge paying him 
 no attention whatever; later, as the ship rang with 
 the blows of projectiles, they disappeared — he knew 
 not where. Shells were crashing into the hull beneath 
 him, coming from ahead and to port, but he could 
 not move to look, nor did he care to. 
 
 Far back on the starboard quarter was being 
 enacted a scene of the terrible drama that would 
 have engaged a livelier attention than his. The 
 three following cruisers were drawing to port, the 
 leader just discernible past the forward turret ; 
 but the two torpedo boats which brought up the rear 
 had swerved inshore, as though to avoid the fire from 
 the American ships, and charging across the wake of 
 the parade was a clipper-bowed converted yacht, al- 
 most hidden in the smoke of her guns. She was hunt- 
 ing, and her prey was the torpedo contingent. Spit- 
 ting fire and steel through the cloud of smoke which 
 almost enveloped her, the rattle of her guns drowned 
 in the nearer volume of sound, she passed out of 
 Dick's sight behind the turret and superstructure, 
 then emerged into view on the starboard quarter. One 
 torpedo-boat turned shoreward, steam and smoke 
 oozing from her riven hull, and a few minutes later 
 seemed to melt away in the surf of the beach; the 
 other kept on, smoking like her sister, until a violent 
 explosion occurred amidships. Sl»e settled by the 
 
222 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 stern, her bow lifted like the nose of a drowning 
 dog, then sank. Again it lifted, higher and higher, 
 until a third of the keel was exposed, and in a cloud 
 of steam she slid stern first to the bottom. 
 
 The flagship rang and crashed and roared with 
 the noise of shells received and sent. There was 
 not a man to be seen on her deck, but at certain 
 moments, at intervals between echoes of the last and 
 the deafening din of the next riot of sound, Dick 
 could hear fragmentary shrieks and howls from the 
 gun-deck beneath. Men were suffering down there, 
 and when a large shell entered the bow, and marked 
 its raking passage aft bj tremors and convulsions 
 in every plate, the humming of human voices spoke 
 more of agony than poor Dick could comprehend at 
 the time. Then came a blinding flash of light at the 
 gun-port of the forward turret, and the ensuing 
 thunderous roar brought the horror of war still closer 
 home to him; a shell had exploded Avithin, and the 
 belching cloud of yellow smoke was streaked with 
 dark lines, fragments of — something. 
 
 The gun was silent for a while, and in the lull 
 the ship swung seaward, offering to Dick's vision the 
 dark green background of the Cuban hills — a slight 
 rest for his aching cj^es. But there was no rest for 
 his ears nor his nerves ; the crashing of shot and 
 shell, and the chattering and roaring of guns con- 
 tinued, and, in a fever of desperate curiosity, he 
 summoned strength and rolled on his side, groan- 
 ing with pain, but more content. He could see the 
 loraa. She was storming along in her smoke, tongues 
 of flame piercing the fleecy envelope, her superstruc- 
 ture a scintillating line of sparkling red. The sliip 
 turned back to her course and soon the Texas came in 
 sight,— the ridiculed Texas, " hoodoo " of the fleet, 
 
CIVILIZATION 223 
 
 — blazing away with her sponson guns and keeping 
 pace with the invincible Iowa. Then appeared the 
 three-funneled Brooklyn, the racer, the happy com- 
 promise of armor, guns, and coal supply. The rattle 
 of her powerful secondary battery rivaled the sound 
 of musketry, and was distinguishable, even at the 
 distance, above the storm of battle. Wavering in his 
 glances, Dick looked for the Nezv York, but she was 
 not in sight ; neither was the torpedo boat to which 
 he belonged, but apparently rising out of the sea, be- 
 tween the Iowa and the Texas, appeared the monster 
 Oregon, the battle-ship which had taken him north 
 from Rio Janeiro. She flamed with fire and hid be- 
 hind her smoke, then emerged, blazing ceaselessly 
 and rushing on. Dick watched her a few moments 
 with darkening faculties, noted the position of the 
 second ship of the Spanish squadron out to sea and 
 of the third drawing ahead of them all, then fainted 
 from pain and thirst and loss of blood. 
 
 Pain, that had helped deprive him of consciousaess, 
 brought it back. Pain that he had never known be- 
 fore afflicted him ; he was writhing on a hot deck, 
 suffocating with smoke and the fumes of burning 
 woodwork. The engines had stopped, and the only 
 gun-fire to be heard was far away, where the hunt 
 was still on. Around him in the smoke were men 
 stricken like himself, and worse — men who had 
 crawled up from the blast furaace buzzing and hum- 
 ming beneath the hot deck. Some, groaning and 
 wheezing as they crawled, were moving slowly toward 
 the rail, through which a fcAV succeeded in dropping. 
 Others remained where the last weakness had over- 
 taken them. A momentary clearing of the smoke 
 showed to Dick the after part of the ship in flames, 
 the foremast gone, and in the fighting top on the 
 
224. MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 mainmast the body of a man leaning over as though 
 hailing the deck. There was a jarring vibration in 
 the hull and an occasional note in the roar of flame 
 that sounded like surf beating on rocks. The ship 
 was beached and deserted by all able to move. 
 
 A hail rang out from overboard : " On deck, there, 
 ye poor divils. Can any o' yez take a line.'' Stand 
 by.'» 
 
 A rope whirled snakelike, high over the rail and 
 dropped, but there was none to take it; it was with- 
 drawn, and then it came again in the form of a run- 
 ning bowline which settled over a stanchion. It was 
 tautened, and a man climbed aboard — a bare-waisted, 
 bare-headed man with a bearded red face. 
 
 " Oh, Mither o' Mercy, boys, what a sight ! " he 
 shouted in mournful tones. " Come up — come up, 
 boys. There be some alive." 
 
 " Morrisey — Morrisey," gasped Dick. " Here — 
 give me a hand." 
 
 Morrisey sprang toward him and peered into his 
 face. 
 
 " Dick, be the powers ! " he shouted. " Bronson, 
 below there. Here's Dick, fryin' in his own juice. 
 Oh, ye poor bye, and how come ye here wi' the 
 dagoes.'' " 
 
 He lifted Dick in his arms and turned toward the 
 rail. Other men were swarming up, and the leader, 
 a giant of a man, took him from Morrisey. Dis- 
 daining the slow descent by the rope, he sprang with 
 him into the sea; for Dick's clothing, dried by the 
 heat, was in flames. 
 
CIVILIZATION 225 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI 
 
 NEARLY four months after the sailing of the 
 Mary Earl, about the time that Dick and Breen 
 joined the fleet, the following appeared in an issue 
 of the AUville Evening Times: 
 
 " A little light is shed on the mysterious disappearance of 
 Ensign Breen, United States navy, by the story of Mayor 
 Arthur, who, with his son and daughter, was a guest of Mr. 
 Breen aboard his ship on the afternoon of the day on which 
 he disappeared. It seems that the young ruffian Halpin, who 
 instigated the riot in our streets, is, or was, a member of the 
 crew, and was given shore leave on that afternoon. He accom- 
 panied the party out of the na\y yard, and carried Mr. Breen's 
 grip to the gate. Mr, Arthur observed that they had words 
 at the gate when Halpin surrendered the grip, and that the 
 sailor seemed in a rage. Later, at the New York terminal 
 of the Brooklyn Bridge, Mr. Breen requested the mayor to 
 take his grip to the Grand Central Station, and started in 
 pursuit of Halpin up Park Row. It is known that Mr. Breen 
 has never called for his grip, and as war is on, it is more than 
 likely that he would have reported for duty if alive. The 
 scoundrelly Halpin has not since been seen. What tale of 
 foul play and murder will come to light when he is caught 
 can only be surmised." 
 
 Miss Bessie Fleming- read this with dilated eyes 
 at the supper table. The meal being over, she took 
 the paper to her room and read It again, then sat 
 thinking for a full quarter of an hour. She sat where 
 her face was reflected back to her from a lara^c 
 mirror, and a passing abstracted glance showed her 
 Its tense expression. She arose and inspected her- 
 self at full length. Though never careless of her 
 dress, and most certainly arrayed as a young lady 
 might be In her own home, yet her eye caught little 
 details which betrayed the Indlff'erence which had 
 come to her regarding her appearance. Her face 
 was pale, now, very pale, and there was a worn look 
 
226 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 in it — a slight drooping at the comers of her mouth 
 — which, at her age, could easily become fixed. Her 
 whole appearance indicated pain, incessant and tor- 
 menting. 
 
 But as she looked a light came to her ej'es and a 
 faint tinge to her cheeks; her breath came faster, 
 and the lines about her mouth hardened a little, then 
 sweetened to a smile — a bitter smile, to be sure, but a 
 smile, an improvement in the pathetic face. She 
 went to a closet and brought forth gowns and gar- 
 ments, hats, boots, and belts. From boxes and 
 receptacles came gloves, ribbons, and handkerchiefs. 
 She laid out the exhibit — a wealth of splendor which 
 a woman might imagine, but no man describe — and 
 stood off to choose. An hour later, equipped for 
 battle, she went forth, rang the bell of a large brick 
 house around the corner, and sent up her card to 
 Miss Mabel Arthur. 
 
 She was a symphony in color, and even harmonized 
 with the fittings of the parlor. 
 
 But another harmony came down to meet her — a 
 creature fluffily gowned in tulle but little darker than 
 her crown of coiled hair, with but two relieving flecks 
 of red — a ribbon at her throat, a flower in her belt — 
 with color in her lips and checks that rivaled the red, 
 with a diamond on her finger no brighter than the 
 sparkle in her eyes. The two poems took momentary 
 measurements, then Mabel advanced with a smile. 
 
 " Why, Bessie," she exclaimed, as their lips met, 
 "where have you been.'' It's an age since I've seen 
 you. You look lovely — really 3'ou do." She ca- 
 ressed Bessie's shirtwaist — a fluffy thing of silk — and 
 led her to the sofa. " Take your things off, dear. 
 It's so long since you've called. Give me your hat 
 and your wrap." 
 
CIVILIZATION 227 
 
 " No — really, Mabel, I can't stay. I must return 
 soon. I didn't tell mother I was going out, you see." 
 
 "Must you.? What a pity! But tell me, Bes- 
 sie " — and again she fondled the silk creation — 
 " where did you get it ? In New Yoi'k ? It is simply 
 beautiful." 
 
 " No," answered Bessie, deprecatingly, for Mabel's 
 equipment shed the flavor of duties paid, " it was 
 made at home. I trust a good deal, you know, to 
 Anna's taste and to mother's." 
 
 " But it is lovely, and your hat, too. How do you 
 manage.'' " 
 
 Then followed a twenty-minute discussion of 
 things feminine which have no place in this story. 
 At the end of it, Bessie, with the sweetest smile sh* 
 could assume, which hardly hid the tightening of her 
 lips, said: 
 
 " By the way, Mabel, did you read what the paper 
 said to-night.'' " 
 
 "Yes — part of it. Why do you ask?" 
 
 "About Mr. Breen's disappearance.? Did you 
 read that.?" 
 
 " Oh, yes. They seem to think that he has been 
 murdered. Who would have thought it of Dick; and 
 we had been so interested in him." 
 
 " But, Mabel " — and Bessie almost gasped it — 
 " you don't think so, do you.? You don't think that 
 Dick would kill him.? Why, he couldn't. Dick Hal- 
 pin. He couldn't. You know he couldn't. I will 
 never believe it." 
 
 " I really do not know," replied INIabel, twirling 
 her diamond, " what Dick could or could not do. He 
 seems to have a very violent temper. The paper calls 
 him a ruffian and a scoundrel. Ruffians and 
 scoundrels sometimes commit murder." 
 
228 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " And don't jou care? " Bessie stood up. " Don't 
 you care anything about it? Dick Halpin, whom 
 you have talked about for years, is charged with 
 murder. You were there on that day — you saw 
 him — you must have seen him — you must know what 
 the quarrel was about. Why did he follow him? You 
 know, Mabel. Why did Mr. Breen follow him to his 
 death? " 
 
 Mabel still twirled the diamond while she looked 
 up at the agitated Bessie, now pacing about in short, 
 hurried turns. 
 
 " I am not concerned, Bessie," she answered, 
 slowly, " about this aspect of the case, because I 
 happen to know that Dick Halpin did not kill Mr. 
 Breen." 
 
 "No— he did not? Then where is he? What 
 has happened? Is he alive? " 
 
 Bessie paused in her walk, and stood over Mabel 
 with eyes wide open, and hands tightly clenched. 
 " Tell me," she added, and there was almost a threat 
 in the command. 
 
 " Yes," replied Mabel, impassively, " he is alive 
 and " — she pressed her diamond to her lips — " I 
 should think very happy to be alive." 
 
 "Where, Mabel? Where is he?" Bessie leaned 
 over her. 
 
 " Wliich one do you mean? " asked Mabel. " Both 
 are alive, and one is happy — that is, if I may judge 
 by the letter I received this morning." 
 
 "A letter? Oh — yes — a letter — to you — " Bes- 
 sie stood erect. " I understand, of course. He is 
 alive, and writes to you. I really beg 3'our pardon 
 — I did not think." She went to the mirror, and 
 though her hat was symmetrically true in adjust- 
 ment, slie gave it a few spasmodic pats; thou she 
 
CIVILIZATION 229 
 
 turned and advanced toward Mabel, who had 
 arisen. 
 
 " He was mine, Mabel," said Bessie, as she paused 
 in the center of the room. " Mine — mine — he never 
 told me, but I knew — I was to wait for him. And you 
 took him away. He left me to go to you. Some day 
 he will leave you to go to another, and then you will 
 know — what — I know now." She reeled a little, but 
 recovered. " Good-by, Mabel," she added, and 
 turned toward the door. 
 
 Before she reached it Mabel had caught her. She 
 enfolded her in her arms and pressed her lips to the 
 pale cheek. 
 
 " Bessie, you poor girl," she said, gently, " come 
 back. You don't understand. He is nothing to me 
 but a good friend. Come back and sit down and 
 talk. Let's talk about it, dear. Come back to the 
 sofa." 
 
 It was some minutes before Bessie's sobs would 
 permit her to listen, and then Mabel, with her arms 
 about her, told her of a letter from Mr. Breen mailed 
 at Jupiter Inlet. He and Halpin had been taken 
 forcibly to sea in a merchant ship, it said ; they had 
 become good friends, and had left the ship at Rio 
 Janeiro just in time to join the Oregon going 
 north. 
 
 " I'll get the letter before you go, Bessie," said 
 Mabel, " and we'll read it together. He wrote to 
 me, I suppose, because he knew I should be glad 
 to hear from him. But you will see, Bessie, just 
 what my position is. Why, he began the letter with, 
 ' Dear Miss Arthur.' That is not lover-like." 
 
 "But the ring.^^ " murmured Bessie, her head on 
 Mabel's shoulder. "You told me." 
 
 " I did not. You told yourself ; I merely allowed 
 
ftSO MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 jou to. I was hateful, I know — awfully hateful, 
 but it was on account of Dick." 
 
 " Then, Mabel," said Bessie, as she straightened 
 up, " you do love Dick Halpin." 
 
 " I do not. I am not acquainted with him. I have 
 had but two conversations with him in my life. I 
 love an ideal, and of all the men I have met Dick 
 comes the nearest to filling it. He may not prove 
 himself — he may turn out just as the papers describe 
 him, a rowdy and a ruffian — I do not know. But, if 
 he is a gentleman, — I know that he is brave and 
 manly, — if he is of good instincts, honest, and clean- 
 minded ; if he is of my class, don't you see, I think — 
 I do not know. And that is all, Bessie. It began 
 "rith his red hair. Ever since I have been able to see 
 I have worshipped red hair. I do not know why, but 
 I had to yield to it. Dick was my ideal boy, and I 
 held to him during his absence while his hair became 
 auburn ; but the habit is fixed. I shall be dreadfully 
 disappointed if he does not succeed in life — and come 
 back to me." 
 
 " But the ring, Mabel," persisted Bessie. 
 
 " A birthday gift from papa, you goosie. Mr. 
 Breen selected it and sent it with the bill." 
 
 " It wasn't kind of you, Mabel. I should not have 
 treated you so. Why did you let me think it was an 
 engagement ring? " 
 
 " Because, as I said, I felt utterly hateful. You 
 had deceived me all along. You were in communica- 
 tion with Dick — with my ideal — all the time, and 
 you never told me." 
 
 " Why, Mabel." 
 
 " You were, Bessie. You told me that day — that 
 day before Dick came home, you know — tliat you 
 expected company and could not come over. And 
 
CIVILIZATION 231 
 
 then, when Mr. Breen called next day he said that 
 he had been at your house first, and found Dick 
 there." 
 
 " But Dick called by accident — I did not expect 
 him; I had not seen him since he went away, and 
 hardly knew him. Why, Mabel, how unjust you have 
 been ! I did expect company, but it was Mr. 
 Breen." 
 
 Mabel's eyes opened a little wider, and her lips 
 parted ; then they closed. 
 
 " But why, Bessie," she said, after a moment's 
 silence, " did not Mr. Breen stay at your house if 
 he was expected.'' An invited guest does not hurry 
 away. And he told me nothing about his being ex- 
 pected at your house. I did not know that he ever 
 called on j^ou." 
 
 Bessie's face flushed as red as the ribbon at 
 Mabel's throat. She looked down and around the 
 room — then squarely at Mabel. 
 
 " I — I — do not know," she said at last. 
 
 " Was it," asked Mabel, gently, " because he found 
 a sailor of his own ship there? You know the class 
 distinctions in the navy." 
 
 Had Bessie agreed to this, tranquillity and con- 
 fidence might have been restored at once; but, hesi- 
 tating a moment, she said, " Not that, exactly." 
 
 " Then, why, Bessie, if Mr. Breen was the ex- 
 pected company, did he go away.? " 
 
 " Because," said Bessie, her face aflame, and des- 
 perately anxious, possibly, to prove her case, " he 
 came just as Dick was going, and — and — just in 
 time to — see — to see him kiss me. And he wouldn't 
 stay. He — turned — and — went right away from me, 
 and I have — haven't se-seen him since." 
 
 And then she began crying, while Mabel straight- 
 
232 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 ened to full height and uttered the one word, 
 "What!" 
 
 She walked the full length of the room and back 
 again. 
 
 "He kissed jou," she repeated; then, as Bessie 
 dried her eyes and looked, she turned, without wait- 
 ing for an answer, and walked again to the end of 
 the room. Here she remained for a moment, while 
 Bessie's pathetic face took on an expression of de- 
 mure resignation. Mabel returned. 
 
 " Bessie," she said, while her fingers worked 
 nervously, " is this really so? Did he kiss you? " 
 
 " Yes, he did," murmured Bessie, shamelessly. 
 " He kissed me — hard." She would have been less 
 than a woman had she been able to forego this 
 one moment of triumph — this one dash of vengeance 
 and reprisal on the one who had so mercilessly 
 wounded her — even at the cost of so shameful an 
 admission. 
 
 "And you let him?" said Mabel. "You let him 
 kiss you ? " 
 
 This brought the matter nearer home; and Bessie, 
 as a properly conducted young lady should, arose in 
 her own defense. 
 
 " I could not help it, Mabel," she said, earnestly. 
 " I didn't think — he was no longer the Dick I knew — 
 and when he was going I — and then — the outer door 
 opened, and Mr. Breen saw it." 
 
 Mabel seated herself in a low reclining chair, threw 
 herself back at full length, and with fingers tapping 
 the arms of the chair stared at the ceiling for a full 
 five minutes, while Bessie waited patiently. Then 
 Mabel sat up. 
 
 " What a fool I am ! " she said at length, with a 
 toss of the head. " He is a man among men. They 
 
CIVILIZATION 233 
 
 are all alike, and he kisses every cook or waitress that 
 he meets alone." 
 
 " Oh," shuddered Bessie, " I hope not." 
 
 " It isn't worth while, Bessie. We mustn't let it 
 come between us again. It is not my business whom 
 he kisses until — unless — " She flushed slightly — 
 " After that I will take care of him." 
 
 " But, Mabel, do you think " — and the question 
 was born of the deepest malice of which Bessie was 
 capable — "do you think that Dick will ever try?" 
 
 Mabel waited a moment while she soberly studied 
 the carpet. 
 
 " Women can always be sure of some things, Bes- 
 sie," she said, slowly. " I looked into his soul that 
 day on the ship — ^when he stood in line with others, 
 waiting to be counted. He may never come back to 
 me — he may be a brute and a scoundrel whom I 
 would not tolerate, though from the description in 
 Mr. Breen's letter I should think he is not — but, 
 Bessie, I saw — I know — that I am to him what he is 
 to me. Wait, and I will get that letter." 
 
 They read it together, with arms ^bout each other. 
 It was, as Mabel had said, a letter couched in terms 
 of friendship, containing news of the voyage in the 
 merchant ship and some wonderful praise of Dick 
 Halpin, but no word of Bessie. 
 
 " Will you answer it, Mabel ? " she asked, as the 
 letter was folded. 
 
 " Of course," said Mabel, and her lips set firmly. 
 " I shall write and give my opinion of a man who 
 can treat you so. I shall scold him as he never was 
 scolded before." 
 
 Bessie rose to her feet in all the dignity of a 
 woman sure of her position. 
 
 " Mabel, you must not," she declared, vehemently ; 
 
234 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " you must not mention my name to him. I forbid it. 
 He condemned me unheard, and went away. Now let 
 him come back — when he is ready." There were 
 tears in her eyes again. 
 
 Mabel smiled, and drew her back to the couch. 
 
 " Well, dear, I won't, then," she said ; " I'll do bet- 
 ter. I'll tell him that his rival is wealthy; that the 
 sailor boy who comes home and kisses his darling is 
 heir to a fortune, and is sure to come home again. 
 Perhaps he will kiss her again." 
 
 " He won't," stormed Bessie. " And don't you 
 mention that kissing, Mabel; don't you dare. He'll 
 only think I'm talking about him, and — I'm not — 
 he don't deserve — " 
 
 And Mabel promised, and kissed her herself into 
 peace and tranquillity and hope. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVII 
 
 A FEW days after Bessie casually glanced over a 
 back number of the Evening Times, which she 
 had neglected reading when issued. It contained the 
 account of the delayed commencement exercises of 
 the graduating class of the High School. Promi- 
 nent in the account was an abstract of an essay 
 written and read by Mr. Edward Brown on " Journal- 
 ism as a Profession." The prominence given to this 
 part of the programme came of the fact, of which 
 Bessie was aware, that Ned Brown's father was the 
 editor of the paper. Certain peculiarities of style in- 
 duced her to hunt for and re-read the editorial which 
 had prompted her visit to Mabel — the same peculiari- 
 ties of style were apparent in both. At the news- 
 paper office, she searched the files and found the 
 
CIVILIZATION 235 
 
 account of the riot in which Dick Halpin was called 
 a thief. There were the same touches of phrasing 
 and punctuation — obviously the three articles were 
 written by the same hand. Buying a copy, she took 
 it home, and with scissors and mucilage prepared an 
 exhibit of the three cuttings, then bided her time. 
 
 It came a few evenings later when she ushei'ed into 
 her small parlor a caller, — a tall, well-dressed young 
 man with a budding mustache, and hair S3^mmetrically 
 divided into fluffy halves. Her greeting was formal, 
 almost frigid, but the young man's smiling self-as- 
 surance suffered no shock until he had turned around 
 once or twice and seated himself in the best chair; 
 then he noticed the calm, cold disapproval in Bessie's 
 blue eyes and arose to his feet. His hostess had 
 remained standing, fingering a scrap-book on the 
 table. 
 
 "Why, Bessie," he said, "what's up? Lost your 
 mother, or — " 
 
 " No, Mr. Brown," she interrupted, incisively, 
 " mother is well." 
 
 "But — why, Bessie — Mr. Brown.? It used to be 
 plain Ned." 
 
 " I have but lately read your essay on ' Journal- 
 ism,' Mr. Brown " — she emphasized the prefix — 
 " and feel much impressed. I could not presume to 
 such familiarity as to call you Ned after reading it. 
 Really, I did not dream that you wrote so well." 
 
 "Is that so, honest, now?" he answered, delight- 
 edly. " Well, now, I'm glad you liked it. I'm going 
 in for it, you know, with father." 
 
 " So I surmised. I cut it out and put it in my 
 scrap-book, it was so good," she purred. " And here 
 is something else that I'm sure is yours. Why, no 
 one else could write so nicely." 
 
236 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 She opened the book, and he approached her side, 
 a little soberly, for the sarcasm in her voice was be- 
 coming apparent. She pointed to a clipping — the 
 one containing speculations as to Breen's murder. 
 
 " You wrote that, too, Mr. Brown, did you not.'' " 
 demanded Bessie. 
 
 " Oh — that, yes, I wrote it. The governor lets 
 me write an editorial now and then, you know. I 
 expect before long to have full charge of that page." 
 
 " And do you think," said Bessie, sternly, " that 
 Dick Halpin, the boy you knew at school, would 
 murder any one? " 
 
 "Why — why, Bessie — why not.? He's a low ruf- 
 fian — a rowdy — " 
 
 " He is not," snapped Bessie. " He is a gentleman 
 past your comprehension, Ned Brown. Why do 3'ou 
 hate him so.'' Plas he ever harmed you.'' Did he 
 harm you that day he came home.'' If I am rightly 
 informed, you were the only one of that cowardly 
 band that escaped." 
 
 " He couldn't catch me," answered Ned, vaguely, 
 stupidly, but somewhat proudly. 
 
 " So I heard. I heard you described as a young 
 man who could not fight very well, but could run like 
 — sixty." 
 
 " Now, Bessie," protested Ned, " this isn't fair. 
 I'm no tough scrapper with my fists, if he is — " 
 
 " But you are moderately proficient with your 
 feet, Mr. Brown ; you can kick a small boy when 
 you have others to assist you. Please do not call 
 him names in my presence. Here is something else 
 that you wrote." 
 
 She showed him the account of the riot. Ned said 
 nothing, but looked troubled. 
 
 " You wrote that falsehood, willfully, Mr. Brown. 
 
CIVILIZATION 237 
 
 You know, and you knew then, that Dick Halpin was 
 innocent of that charge. You knew that he never 
 wore the name of thief but one week, for he was 
 cleared by the confession of the real culprit — " 
 
 " But — really — ^I'd forgotten, Bessie ; I really had 
 forgotten — " 
 
 " You did not forget ; but you supposed him ut- 
 terly friendless in this town, and you made a mistake. 
 Do you care for my future acquaintance ? " 
 
 " Of course, Bessie, of course I do. Haven't I 
 been coming to see — " 
 
 " Then you will rescind in your father's paper 
 every slander against Dick Halpin you have uttered." 
 
 *' How can I ? Father is supposed to edit the page. 
 He won't reverse himself just for me. Besides, 
 George Arthur is a gentleman and an officer of the 
 navy. It won't do — " 
 
 " It will do ; but you need not mention George 
 Arthur. On his sister's account alone I would not 
 have you mention him ; but you will retract your 
 words in regard to Dick Halpin — my friend from 
 the first, understand — or I will never speak to you 
 again." 
 
 Bessie moved toward the door and turned to face 
 him. Ned followed and passed her, halting as he took 
 his hat from the rack in the hall. 
 
 " I've got to do it, I suppose, somehow," he said 
 painfully ; " but it's like pulling teeth, and father — " . 
 
 She had turned away from him. 
 
 Ned passed out, and Bessie collapsed in tears. 
 She was not a natural diplomat, and the ordeal 
 had taxed her nerves. But she said nothing to 
 Mabel about a problem affecting the good name of 
 her brother, even though their renewed friendship 
 reached a confidence and an intimacy which it had 
 
238 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 never known before. And soon, this friendship was 
 tested by a strain that roused to its fulhiess all the 
 latent womanhood of her immature nature — at a 
 time when the country rang with gladness over the 
 destruction of Cervera's fleet, and a sister alterna- 
 tively raved and moaned over the loss of a brother. 
 It was Bessie, the affectionate and dependent, who 
 knew how to comfort and subdue the frantic Mabel; 
 and perhaps not the least of the anodynes for this 
 awful grief of twin for twin was her oft-repeated 
 formula, — 
 
 " Dick was saved ; he'll come back." 
 
 Either the beneficent effect of the formula or 
 youth and good health sufficed to bring to Mabel, as 
 the weeks passed, composure of mind and self-con- 
 trol sufficient for the small orderings of her daily 
 life; she received and read her own letters. One, 
 from Breen, written at Key West, and dated August 
 5, began with condolences, which no matter how 
 heartfelt the sympathy of friend for friend, can 
 only be expressed in a few stultified phrases of hack- 
 neyed English ; then followed more business-like news, 
 derived at first hand from the wrecking party that 
 had raised the sunken steam launch in the Santiago 
 channel, to the effect that the tide had washed all 
 the bodies away, and that the chances were against 
 their being recovered ; then the writer, drifting into 
 the slap-dash style of a man writing hurriedly in the 
 midst of duties, had this to say : 
 
 *' I have spent an hour with Dick Halpin at the hospital 
 ashore here; he is doinp: well, considering tliat he was shot 
 full of holes, half-drowned, rammed by a big, fast cruiser, 
 and then nearly roasted ulivc — in the language of Seaman 
 Morrisey, wlio rescued him — Morrisey, of your town, who kept 
 the hotel — know him? Morrisey said to me at Guantanamo that 
 'Dick wuz a-cookin' all right, but thcr: bein' no one there 
 
CIVILIZATION 239 
 
 to turn him an' baste him proper-lilje, he got scorched on one 
 side.' Dick will pull through without doubt, but he is, men- 
 tally, in a bad way. He thinks that if he had asserted him- 
 self — think of it, a seaman against an officer — that he might 
 have prevented your brother from going into the harbor. As 
 a properly educated and superior-minded graduate of An- 
 napolis should do, I took that conceit out of him; but there 
 remains to him this — that your brother's death furnished him 
 with his opportunity — which has resulted in a typewritten let- 
 ter from a certain high official at Washington, and he keeps 
 it under his pillow, taking it out to read occasionally, — and you 
 cannot imagine what this letter means to a blue-jacket of the 
 navy, — but over it all is his accusing conscience, that, to get 
 this letter, he allowed your brother to die. In fact, he did not; 
 he would have been open to court-martial and disgrace had 
 he interfered as he thinks he should; but of this I cannot wholly 
 convince him; it is for you to help me when you see him. 
 Your admonition to come home an officer had a strong influ- 
 ence on Dick's action that morning, and his dare-devil attempt 
 to run four batteries in broad daylight, and certain admissions 
 which he has unconsciously let slip, prove to me — well, I am 
 saying too much. Will you please say to Miss Fleming, when 
 you see her, that I have learned that Dick had not been home 
 since he left four years ago until this summer? It is very 
 likely that Dick and I will come home together, as the war 
 will surely end soon, and he is almost able to travel, and I, on 
 detached duty, can easily obtain leave." 
 
 Mabel read the letter to Bessie, then said : " Father 
 will invite them here, for he was with George when 
 he died. Shall you be here when they come, Bessie.'* " 
 
 Bessie shivered, flushed, and steadied herself. 
 
 " No, Mabel, he will bring Dick home, of course, 
 and he will come to you first. But — I shall be in my 
 own home." 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII 
 
 THREE weeks later Breen and Dick boarded an 
 afternoon train at the Grand Central Station in 
 New York. Both were in the undress uniform of 
 commissioned naval officers ; but, even aside from this 
 change, few of Dick's old messmates would have 
 
240 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 recognized him. His eyes held the soft light, and 
 his features tlie super-refinement which always comes 
 of extreme physical suffering. He was paler than 
 usual, and a master of the " dapper art " had re- 
 duced his wavy hair to fashionable length and con- 
 tour, and a sick-bed growth on his erstwliile smooth 
 face to a compact and becoming mustache. It was 
 Breen who had groomed him — Breen who had cap- 
 tiously criticised the tailor's work to the last wrinkle 
 and misplaced line of stitching, who had accompa- 
 nied him to the navy yard for his pay and honorable 
 discharge as seaman apprentice, and while there 
 made much of him to officers, old and young — gen- 
 tlemen all, who cordially welcomed him as one of 
 themselves and candidly envied him his record. Then 
 he had engineered him to the station to accept Mr. 
 Arthur's invitation to visit his home. 
 
 " It's too cheap," Dick protested, as they took 
 seats, " this jumping into uniform at tlie first 
 chance." 
 
 " You were told to come home an officer," said 
 Breen, firmly, " and you're going to do it. It is my 
 part to see that you do." 
 
 " But do you think — it's all right in your case — 
 but in mine, won't she — won't Miss Arthur see 
 through the sham.'' Will she think any better of me 
 for this dressing to a part .'* " 
 
 " You are an acting ensign of the United States 
 navy," answered Bi-ccn, thumping his knee with his 
 fist. " You are on sick leave under orders from the 
 Secretary of the Navy to report, when well, to 
 Annapolis for special instruction. What more do 
 you want, Dick.'' " 
 
 " You sec," went on Dick, " I've always looked up 
 to her, and — " 
 
CIVILIZATION 241 
 
 " Out with it. I gathered by your half-crazy talk 
 at Key West that you loved her." 
 
 " Well — yes," said Dick, defiantly. " I never 
 could help it, although I haven't met her but twice in 
 my life. But I can keep my place, I promise you, 
 and when you're married — " 
 
 " When who's married.'' " 
 
 " You and Miss Arthur ; when — " 
 
 " She and I will never be married if I can help it. 
 What put that into your head? She never allowed 
 me to get fond of her." 
 
 " Why, aren't you ? " gasped Dick, leaning back 
 against the cushion. He was still weak from sick- 
 ness and vulnerable to shock. " I was told so — Miss 
 Fleming — " He stopped, not knowing how far he 
 might be violating a confidence. 
 
 "Bessie told you.'* What game is she playing, 
 anyhow," said Breen, with a puzzled face. " Well, 
 no matter. I'll know before long; but tell me, Dick," 
 he added, earnestly, " is there, or rather was there, 
 anything between you and Bessie? " 
 
 " Nothing but what you saw," said Dick, dimly 
 beginning to realize the truth. " I hadn't seen her 
 since leaving school — we were chums then — and I 
 called to get news of the gang I was after; then, 
 as I was about to leave, I obeyed an impulse." 
 
 " And so did I," said Breen, musingly. " I've 
 been a jealous fool. How did she take it — if it's a 
 fair question ? " 
 
 " She put me out," answered Dick, gloomily ; 
 " hated me — I was never to speak to her again. And 
 she wrote her further opinion of me to the Vermont,'^ 
 
 "Did she?" laughed Breen. "Bless her — and 
 sent the letter in my care, and made matters worse. 
 She must have known that I'd recognize her hand- 
 
242 IMASTERS OF MEN 
 
 writing. I thought you were in close correspondence, 
 and that it was a delicate hint for me to step down 
 and out." 
 
 " No ; I never got such a roasting in my life ; and 
 she even enclosed a clipping from the paper calling 
 me all sorts of hard names. It was in tliat letter that 
 she told of your engagement to Miss Arthur. Why, 
 she spoke of the engagement ring — a diamond." 
 
 ** A diamond.? Yes, I selected one for her and sent 
 it from New York; but her father paid for it." 
 
 " It was easy for me to believe it," said Dick. 
 " She had teased me about you in the house, and 
 after my eviction I followed you to the corner and 
 saw you call at the Arthurs'." 
 
 *' There's something funny behind all this, Dick," 
 said Breen, after a moment's thought. " It was 
 Miss Arthur herself who clinched my suspicions con- 
 cerning you and Bessie. I understand now what ailed 
 you in the navy yard, but thought you were an all- 
 round crank, sore at me for catcliing you kissing 
 your best girl. Dick, we've done well. In spite of 
 this mutual distrust and jealousy, we've managed to 
 become good friends. Let it go at that for the 
 present." 
 
 " I've a hazy remembrance, or it may be that I 
 dreamed it, that you began something about this 
 matter in that back room where we were drugged. 
 But I cannot recollect just what it was." 
 
 " I can," said Breen, decidedly. " every word of 
 it; but there's no occasion to repeat it now. We 
 are too close to the climax. I wonder," he added 
 softly and slowly, as he leaned back and closed his 
 eyes, " what my reception will be. There are de- 
 grees of asininity ; where do I stand? " 
 
 Dick could not tell liim, and was satisfied with 
 
CIVILIZATION 24^ 
 
 silence and the music of his own thoughts, until the 
 train reached Allville. 
 
 Mabel's father, sad-faced, but genial, met them on 
 the platform. 
 
 " I received your telegram," he said, as he shook 
 hands with Breen, "and hurried over to meet you; 
 but I have only a few minutes, — ^board meeting, you 
 see, and I am wanted, — and this is Mr. Halpin," he 
 added, offering Dick his hand. " I recognize you as 
 the sailor who revolutionized our town government — 
 this, in fact, is the business before the board. I con- 
 gratulate you, young man, on your promotion. You 
 were with my son when he died, I hear " — the old 
 gentleman's voice quavered a little — " and when we 
 have time you must tell me how he died." 
 
 " I can tell you now, Mr. Arthur," said Dick, 
 gravely and earnestly ; " he died like a man — a brave 
 man." 
 
 " I am glad to hear that — but — you must tell me 
 all. Meanwhile, both of you, consider my house 
 your home while you are here. Mabel is expecting 
 you. I cannot be at dinner, I fear; but you will go 
 at once to the house, will you not.'' " 
 
 " Thank you, no, Mr. Arthur," answered Breen. 
 " We'll call in the evening. We're a little travel- 
 stained at present.'* 
 
 " Well, I'm off. I will see you in the evening." 
 
 They went to the Hotel Morrisey, still wearing 
 its large sign, though the versatile Morrisey was 
 replaced by a stranger. 
 
 " Did I tell you," asked Dick, as they seated them- 
 selves in the dining-room, " that Mort'isey and Bron- 
 son came to see me in the hospital? Morrisey lost 
 his license on account of the trouble, but he still 
 owns this place. The plan is for Bronson to take 
 
244 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 out the license when their time is out, and settle 
 down as Morrisey's partner." 
 
 " Good wind-up for an old sailor," remarked 
 Breen, as he reached for the bill of fare. " Hello, 
 what's the matter with him ? " 
 
 A young man had Imrriedly entered the dining- 
 room, but, on seeing the two officers at the table, 
 had turned, and as hurriedly bolted from the 
 room. 
 
 " It's Ned Brown," said Dick, with a laugh, " the 
 only one of the crowd that I missed that day. Per- 
 haps he feared his turn had come." 
 
 They caught a momentary glimpse of Ned 
 through the open door, negotiating with a newsboy ; 
 then he disappeared from sight, and the boy, hat in 
 hand, entered the dining-room and advanced toward 
 them. 
 
 " Mr. Brown's compliments, sir, to Mr. Hal- 
 pin," he said, and laid a paper before them. 
 Then he vanished, while Dick glanced through the 
 paper. 
 
 " Things certainly are coming my way," he said at 
 last. He handed the paper to Breen, with his finger 
 marking a column. " Read it aloud. I only read 
 part." Breen read the following: 
 
 " Tlirough misapprehension and misinformation on our part, 
 we have in these columns made certain dispa rapping comments 
 on Richard Halpin, formerly a native of AUville, and who, 
 as most of our readers will remember, returned lately and 
 served out some poetic justice to certain enemies of liis school- 
 days. Among the comments we made at the time, and wliicli 
 we take pleasure in retracting, was one concerning his hon- 
 esty, wherein we erroneously charged him with being expelled 
 from school for stealing. As we learn, such a charge was 
 made, but we are aware now that Mr. Halpin was clearly and 
 honorably cleared of the stipma at the time it happened. Mr. 
 Halpin has acquitUd himself with great credit to himself as 
 a sailor in the na\-y during the late war, having won his spurs, 
 or ratlier his epaulettes, by cool-headed daring during the 
 
CIVILIZATION 245 
 
 blockade of Santiago. Mr. Halpin is shortly expected to visit 
 AUville, where, we are informed, a large property awaits him. 
 It is hoped that he will continue to make Allville his home." 
 
 " And not a word about the man that stopped the 
 riot and saved all their blooming lives," remarked 
 Breen, with a grimly humorous frown. " They'll 
 make a hero of you, Dick, if 3'ou allow it. They'll 
 give you a sword and gold epaulettes and make 
 speeches over you; and you'll have to respond, and 
 say how your heart always warmed to your old 
 home." 
 
 " Not much," shivered Dick. " Not while I can 
 run. Still it is good to read such things about your- 
 self when you've felt for years that every one thought 
 the reverse of you. Look ! We're holding a levee — 
 look at them ! " 
 
 A shifting, shuffling crowd of men and boys passed 
 back and forth before the door and windows, peeping 
 in as they passed. Another crowd was gathering 
 in the office, respectfully inspecting the two as they 
 ate. From this crowd came a man through the door 
 — a sunburned man carrjang a horsewhip. 
 
 " And this is Dick," he said, boisterously, as he 
 reached out his hand. " Ned's I'ad Dick. Oh, we've 
 kept track o' you, lad, out on the farm. I'm not 
 goin' to stay and disturb you now, only I've just got 
 to stop and shake hands and clap you on the back. 
 Bully for you, Dick; and say, just consider to my 
 credit, won't you, that if I'd given you a job on my 
 farm, you wouldn't be here now, would you.? " He 
 brought his open hand down on Dick's shoulders with 
 force that hurt, and was gone.' 
 
 " Mr. Bronson," said Dick, in answer to Breen's 
 inquiring glance. " First man I asked for work. 
 And here's Mr. Clark." He rose to his feet. 
 
246 MASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " I've just a minute, Richard," said the school- 
 master, approaching from the street door; "just 
 a minute in which to congratulate you. Mr. Arthur 
 has just informed me of your arrival. There is no 
 success like success, Richard, is there.'' Really, I 
 think I can say that you are the most successful of 
 all my pupils. Have you brought your body-guard 
 this time? " 
 
 " No, Mr. Clark," answered Dick, respectfully. 
 " Let me introduce Mr. Breen, of the navy — my old 
 teacher, Breen. I hope you don't think that I've de- 
 clared endless war, sir." 
 
 " I should hope not," said the principal with a 
 forgiving smile. " For in that case we will need a 
 larger police force than we are getting. You 
 will remain with us awhile.'' Yes.'' Well, I will 
 see you again. By the way, at Mr. Arthur's sug- 
 gestion, a few of us have considered — er — a little 
 banquet — a reception, you know. Naval heroes 
 are scarce with us and we must make the most of 
 them." 
 
 He hurried away before Dick could reply, and 
 Breen sank back in a fit of laughter. 
 
 " Told you so," he sang, as he looked into Dick's 
 worried face. 
 
 " I'll clear out first," said Dick, savagely, " and I 
 can't stand much more of this, either," he looked at 
 the still growing crowd without. " Let's bolt this 
 grub and get out of sight." 
 
 They finished the meal and sought the parlor, 
 from which, two hours later, the}' emerged, to enter 
 a cab, neither being willing to head a parade through 
 the streets, and in less than ten minutes stood in 
 Mabel Arthur's parlor, — Breen with a joke and a 
 smile for everything, Dick, sober and somewhat iU 
 
CIVILIZATION Ml 
 
 at ease. He had fought his way to this new world, 
 but it was yet strange to hira. 
 
 An inner door opened, and Mabel appeared, 
 gowned in black, but with color in her cheeks, and 
 the beauty in her face unmarred by the sorrow in her 
 eyes. With the old swift glance at both, she ad- 
 vanced, smiling slightly to Breen, but paying no 
 attention at all to Dick. 
 
 " I am glad you've come at last," she said, in the 
 full, musical tones which Dick could only remember 
 in his dreams. " Have you see Bessie? " 
 
 " Not yet, Miss Arthur," laughed Breen, as he 
 took her extended hand. 
 
 " I was in duty bound to bring him here, you know, 
 before doing anything else. I believed that you 
 have never been formally introduced " — he waved 
 his hand toward Dick — " my friend. Ensign Hal- 
 pin, of the navy — he has come home an officer 
 and—" 
 
 " He has done well ; and you — ^have not. Take 
 your cap and go to Bessie. At once " — she spoke 
 imperiously, though still smiling. " Do not come 
 back without her." 
 
 " But won't you please acknowledge the introduc- 
 tion," protested Breen ; " can't I see you shake hands 
 with him? My friend, you know." 
 
 " I will take care of him. Go ! " 
 
 She resolutely pointed to the door. 
 
 " All right," said Breen, laughingly backing 
 away. " Dick, take warning. I'm put out. I know 
 all about it now." 
 
 He disappeared through the door, and the girl 
 turned toward Dick. 
 
 " He has almost broken her heart," she said. " A 
 man should not do that." 
 
248 IMASTERS OF MEN 
 
 " I knew," he answered, slightly inclining his 
 head. 
 
 She slowly approached him, her lips trembling as 
 though she were about to speak. Almost involun- 
 tarily he advanced to meet her. Gray eyes looked 
 into black — black into gray. Deep spoke unto deep ; 
 and Mabel and Dick, in this, the third meeting of 
 their lives, drew closer and closer together; then, 
 with his arms about her waist, their lips met. 
 
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