.. "an' w'en you come back with th' booze, we'll see to it that
you get took out to the transport with us, all right ... won't we,
boys?"
"--betcher boots we will."
* * * * *
"God, but this is like heaven to me," exclaimed the barber, as he tilted
up his bottle, while the two others stood about him, to keep him from
being seen. The three of them drank their bottles of whiskey as if it
was water.
"That saved me life...."
"An' mine, too. You go to Manila wit' us, all right,--kid!"
* * * * *
Toward dusk came the sharp command for the men to march aboard the
coaster that had drawn up for them. The boys kept their word. They
loaded me down with their accoutrements to carry. I marched up the
gangway with them, and we were off to the _Indiana_.
I was the first, almost, to scamper aboard the waiting transport in the
gathering dusk ... and, to make sure of staying aboard, I hurried down
one ladder after the other, till I reached the heavy darkness of the
lowermost hold. Having nothing to do but sleep, I stumbled over some
oblong boxes, climbed onto one, and composed myself for the night, using
a coil of rope for a pillow.
I woke to find a grey patch of day streaming down the ladder-way. My
eyes soon adjusted themselves to the obscurity.
And then it was that I gave a great, scared leap.
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