'No, sir; but you can tell me what to do,' I returned.
'Is it one of the crew?' he asked.
'I believe him to be a fireman,' I replied.
I dare say officers are much annoyed by complaints and alarmist
information from their freight of human creatures; but certainly,
whether it was the idea that the sick man was one of the crew, or
from something conciliatory in my address, the officer in question
was immediately relieved and mollified; and speaking in a voice much
freer from constraint, advised me to find a steward and despatch him
in quest of the doctor, who would now be in the smoking-room over his
pipe.
One of the stewards was often enough to be found about this hour down
our companion, Steerage No. 2 and 3; that was his smoking-room of a
night. Let me call him Blackwood. O'Reilly and I rattled down the
companion, breathing hurry; and in his shirt-sleeves and perched
across the carpenters bench upon one thigh, found Blackwood; a neat,
bright, dapper, Glasgow-looking man, with a bead of an eye and a rank
twang in his speech. I forget who was with him, but the pair were
enjoying a deliberate talk over their pipes.
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