41 Lure O Gold 1904

"
"
IX
IN THE STEERAGE
r
PROFESSIONAL duty called the Doctor to the steerage
during the afternoon, and I went down with him to
look about for the gold-thieves.
I had already seen
most of the steerage passengers. There were about
fifty of them, chiefly men who were going home
strapped
and dejected after their profitless journey
to the Arctic. They had used up the last of their
"
"
grub-stakes
and were barely able to secure the poor
est return passage.
I had seen those men on the forward deck, where
they huddled together, with their hands in their pockets,
looking over the flashing brine with spiritless gaze
the most depressed set of men I had ever looked upon.
But Slattery had not shown himself on deck. He was
probably lurking somewhere below. I had thought
that the finding of him and his pink-faced companion
might prove a difficult task, as they could have stowed
themselves away so securely somewhere in the vessel s
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