Chapter 11

Sterne crossed the deck upon the track of the chief engineer. Jack,
the second, retreating backwards down the engine-room ladder, and still
wiping his hands, treated him to an incomprehensible grin of white teeth
out of his grimy hard face; Massy was nowhere to be seen. He must have
gone straight into his berth. Sterne scratched at the door softly, then,
putting his lips to the rose of the ventilator, said--

"I must speak to you, Mr. Massy. Just give me a minute or two."

"I am busy. Go away from my door."

"But pray, Mr. Massy . . ."

"You go away. D'you hear? Take yourself off altogether--to the other
end of the ship--quite away . . ." The voice inside dropped low. "To the
devil."

Sterne paused: then very quietly--

"It's rather pressing. When do you think you will be at liberty, sir?"

The answer to this was an exasperated "Never"; and at once Sterne, with
a very firm expression of face, turned the handle.

Mr. Massy's stateroom--a narrow, one-berth cabin--smelt strongly of
soap, and presented to view a swept, dusted, unadorned neatness, not
so much bare as barren, not so much severe as starved and lacking in
humanity, like the ward of a public hospital, or rather (owing to the
small size) like the clean retreat of a desperately poor but exemplary
person. Not a single photograph frame ornamented the bulkheads; not a
single article of clothing, not as much as a spare cap, hung from the
brass hooks. All the inside was painted in one plain tint of pale blue;
two big sea-chests in sailcloth covers and with iron padlocks fitted
exactly in the space under the bunk. One glance was enough to embrace
all the strip of scrubbed planks within the four unconcealed corners.
The absence of the usual settee was striking; the teak-wood top of the
washing-stand seemed hermetically closed, and so was the lid of the
writing-desk, which protruded from the partition at the foot of the
bed-place, containing a mattress as thin as a pancake under a threadbare
blanket with a faded red stripe, and a folded mosquito-net against
the nights spent in harbor. There was not a scrap of paper anywhere in
sight, no boots on the floor, no litter of any sort, not a speck of
dust anywhere; no traces of pipe-ash even, which, in a heavy smoker, was
morally revolting, like a manifestation of extreme hypocrisy; and the
bottom of the old wooden arm-chair (the only seat there), polished
with much use, shone as if its shabbiness had been waxed. The screen
of leaves on the bank, passing as if unrolled endlessly in the round
opening of the port, sent a wavering network of light and shade into the
place.

Sterne, holding the door open with one