Their attendants were anything but friendly. Martin, Fred, Tony, and Old Smith had given themselves over body and soul. Smith was already promised a ship, to sail in a week, so he had seven more days of hilarious living to look forward to, and then another drill, around the Horn or the Cape of Good Hope; another such voyage as we had just passed through.
Axel and Hitchen were in their old clothes; they had seen the sights, but seemed far steadier than the rest.
I cornered Frenchy. "What are you going to do when you get your pay?" I asked.
"I will pay up what I owe and ship for England or France."
"Better buy a steerage passage for Havre," I reminded him, when the crimp who owned him closed in, and a bull voice from the back room ordered us to line up for our pay.
My name was one of the last to be called, and as I got my pay, something over one hundred and twenty-five dollars, with slops and allowance given in Honolulu deducted, I returned to the outer room and found most of the men gone. As fast as they had got their money, the crimps had hurried them off to their respective boarding houses. The Kanakas came in, still in charge of the colored mission, or whatever it was, that had them in tow, apparently the only honest people there, and I bid those simple fellows good-bye; whether Kahemuku ever got to "Pilladelpia," I don't know; I hope he did.
Presently I was on the street. The crew of the Fuller had vanished. I looked for Peter; he was gone. I stood alone and strangers passed, bumping into me, no doubt thinking me a sunburned country yokel, stranded in those busy, narrow streets.
That afternoon I saw Captain Shackford, of the American Line, and was promised a billet as cadet on the St. Louis, just returned to the passenger service after her brief career as an auxiliary cruiser during the war with Spain. My service in sail was completed, and I was to experience eighteen months, as quartermaster, for I was soon promoted, on the St. Louis, during her golden age, when for a brief period it looked as though the Stars and Stripes were again to come into their own upon the Western Ocean.
THE END