“C. Q.”; or, In the Wireless House
Micky saw in the moonlight was the face of one in hell. He began to be worried, for he had seen them like that before—when the Lithuanian woman had jumped off the bow, and the crazy Pole had dived over the rail near the Azores the last time across. Cloud walked slowly aft, holding his hat in his hand. He trod as if in his sleep, with his eyes directly astern. Micky slid down the ladder and in his rubber-soled shoes followed on the other side of the after deck-house. If Cloud contemplated suicide, he knew where he meant to do it! He stole silently along, and reached the clear space at the end of the ship before Cloud had emerged on the other side.
There was an old wooden bench there, where people who did not mind the cinders and the motion could sit In the daytime and watch the gulls. Another instant, and the creak of Cloud’s shoes could be heard; another, and the man himself appeared around the corner. He stood in the moonlight, not more than six feet from where Micky was flattened against the star-board side of the deck-house. Only a single twisted, weather-beaten iron rail separated him from the actual stern itself—the74
