Part 16 (1/2)

He came into the outer office of the great oil company, and through the half-open door of his private office the new superintendent observed the stimulating style of his entrance. Looking for work, no doubt of that, but not looking like a man who was apologizing for it; and that in itself was a joy to the new official.

No hesitating--”Please, sir, who is the gentleman,”--no timid waiting on any languid understrapper's pleasure for this one. A short pause; his dark eyes swept the room from wall to wall; his black head bent respectfully and not without appreciation toward the pretty stenographer; and then, before the leisurely office boy thought it time to rise and ask what he wanted, he was at the rail-gate. And when the gate did not at once swing open, he stepped lightly over it; and singling out from all the furtively smiling males the head clerk, he charged straight across the floor toward that important person's desk.

And the head clerk, who was also the head wit, took a peek at him coming, and very politely said, ”Pray be seated?” And, also very politely, ”From whence came you and what willst thou?”

The chuckling heads bobbed above the rows of desks. The head clerk himself had to gaze window-ward to smother his smile.

”Gramercy, kind sir--”

”Gramercy? Eh, what? Gramercy?”

”Gramercy Park--you know where Gramercy Park is? Or didn't you ask me where I came from?”

”Oh-h-Oh-h, yes.”

”Of course, and I'm after a berth as pump-man on your oil s.h.i.+p sailing to-day for the Gulf.”

”And what, may I ask, do you know of our cla.s.s of s.h.i.+ps?”

”Only what I've heard--most modern oil-tankers afloat, and I'd like to try one out--and sail the Gulf again, if you'll give me the chance.”

”M-m--what are your qualifications?”

”Qualifications? For pump-man on an oil-tanker?”

”Pump-man--yes. And on an oil-tanker. I'm not hiring a rough rider, or a policeman, or an aeroplanist--just a pump-man.”

Through his open door the new superintendent caught the wink which his head clerk directed at the second clerk. And caught it so easily that the thought came to him that to share in the humor of the head clerk may have been one of the recreations of his predecessor.

”What has been your experience with marine machinery? What were your last three or four places?”

”My last three or four? Well, one was being second-a.s.sistant engineer on a government collier from the Philippines with a denaturalized skipper, and for purser a slick up-state New Yorker; and both of 'em at the old game--grafting off the grub allowance. And that's bad.”

”Eh--what's bad?”

”Grafting off the grub. Men quit a s.h.i.+p for poor grub quicker than they do for poor pay. For a week after we hit San Francisco I didn't get any further away from the dining-room of the nearest hotel--well, than”--he turned suddenly--”than that fellow there is from here--that fat, knock-kneed chap there who seems to have so much to say about me.” The second clerk, who was also the second head wit, yelped like a suddenly squelched concertina and was quiet.

The new-comer, after a grave study of the knock-kneed one's person, resumed his narrative. ”Then oiler on a cattle steamer. Ever been on a cattleman?”

”Huh!” The head clerk was scowling tremendously.

”No? You ought to try one sometime. Some are all right, but some are”--he looked sidewise at the stenographer--”well, no matter. One night two sweet-tempered, light-complexioned coal-pa.s.sers. .h.i.t me together, one with a shovel, the other with a slice-bar. It was the slice-bar, I think, that got me. I didn't see it coming--or going either--but probably it was the slice-bar.” He bent his neck and parted the heavy black hair. A white welt showed through the hair.

The head clerk flashed an enlightening wink toward the second head clerk; but the second clerk, seeming to be less interested than formerly, the wink was flashed over to the stenographer; but as she, too, seemed preoccupied, the head clerk, rather less buoyantly, inquired, ”And what did you do to the two coal-pa.s.sers?”

”For what I did to them--after I came to--I had to jump into the Mersey and swim ash.o.r.e. British justice, you know. Inflexible!--especially to a foreigner who cracks a couple of domestic skulls.”

”And then?”

”English navy.”