In a Steamer Chair and Other Shipboard Stories by Robert Barr (Luke Sharp) A PRELIMINARY WORD As the incidents related herein took place during voyages between England and America, I dedicate this book to the Vagabond Club of London, and the Witenagemote Club of Detroit, in the hope that, if any one charges me with telling a previously told tale, the fifty members of each club will rise as one man and testify that they were called upon to endure the story in question from my own lips prior to the alleged original appearance of the same. R. B. Table of Contents In a Steamer Chair Mrs. Tremain Share and Share Alike An International Bow A Ladies’ Man A Society for the Reformation of Poker Players The Man Who was Not on the Passenger List The Terrible Experience of Plodkins A Case of Fever How the Captain Got His Steamer Out My Stowaway The Purser’s Story Miss McMillan In a Steamer Chair The First Day Mr. George Morris stood with his arms folded on the bulwarks of the steamship _City of Buffalo_, and gazed down into the water. All around him was the bustle and hurry of passengers embarking, with friends bidding good-bye. Among the throng, here and there, the hardworking men of the steamer were getting things in order for the coming voyage. Trunks were piled up in great heaps ready to be lowered into the hold; portmanteaux, satchels, and hand-bags, with tags tied to them, were placed in a row waiting to be claimed by the passengers, or taken down into the state-rooms. To all this bustle and confusion George Morris paid no heed. He was thinking deeply, and his thoughts did not seem to be very pleasant. There was nobody to see him off, and he had evidently very little interest in either those who were going or those who were staying behind. Other passengers who had no friends to bid them farewell appeared to take a lively interest in watching the hurry and scurry, and in picking out the voyagers from those who came merely to say good-bye.