Onslow gave a quick smile to himself, as though he understood something; then mounted a look of concern on his face, and, getting up from his chair, crossed to port and strode up to the break of the bridge-deck. The captain, coming out of the chart-house, joined him. From the door of the alley-way beneath them rushed a crowd of frightened men—trimmers and stokers, stripped to the waist, engineers in dungaree—all the human contents of the lowest hold. Kettle singled out the Chief with his eye, and addressed him with sour irony— “’Afternoon, Mr. McFee. Fine, isn’t it, for the time of year? Have your curs forgotten that they’re paid to work this steamboat up Mississippi River to a city called New Orleans? Or have they induced the other watch to go below and give them a spell?” “Guid God, sir, dinna jest!” replied the Chief. “Ye remember what yon scoundrel said on Liverpool dock wall? Weel, he’s been as guid as his words, sir. We’ve found an infernal machine already.” “Well?” drawled Kettle. “Man, we may be blown to the sea-floor any minute.” “Sea whisky! sea grandmother!” “Man, sir, see wi’ your own een. By God’s guid mercy the donkeyman picked it from among the coals, or it’s no knowin’ where we’d bin this blessed moment!” “Hand it up here,” the skipper commanded shortly. The burly donkeyman, half grinning, half afraid, came up the iron steps and handed the captain a box painted to look like a knob of coal. “It was ticking when I picked it up, sir,” he said, “but when I handled it, the ticking stopped.” The captain took the thing in his hand. It started on a fresh _cluck_, _cluck_, and the grimy men on the iron decks below humped their shoulders as though to better receive a blow, and began to shuffle away towards the bows. “Oh, it may be something dangerous,” said Captain Kettle, and he hove his burden over the side, “or it mayn’t. Looked to me like a toy to frighten flats. There’s only one man with the pluck of a roach amongst you, and here’s half-a-crown for him.” The donkeyman’s black forefinger knuckled his greasy cap. “As for the rest, your mothers must have suckled you on pigeons’ milk, and then sent you to a girls’ school to dry-nurse. You pack of beauties! Oh, you cowardly, bobby-hunted gems! If the thing was found, well, found it was, and the donkeyman brought it on deck. What do you want to foul the clean air for with your dingy stinking carcasses before your watch was out? I’ll log every man of you for this; yes, Mr. McFee, and Mr. Second, and Mr. Third, I’ll dirty your tickets for you as well, and if you give me another ounce of bother I’ll take care you none of you ever get another berth so long as the universe holds water to carry shipping. You cowardly hounds! Oh, you trust me!”