'By the bye, Alick,' said he, 'I met a gentleman in New York who
was asking for you.'
'Who was that?' asked Alick.
'The new second engineer on board the So-and-so,' was the reply.
'Well, and who is he?'
'Brown, to be sure.'
For Brown had been one of the fortunate quartette aboard the
Circassia. If that was the way of it in the States, Alick thought
it was high time to follow Brown's example. He spent his last day,
as he put it, 'reviewing the yeomanry,' and the next morning says
he to his landlady, 'Mrs. X., I'll not take porridge to-day,
please; I'll take some eggs.'
'Why, have you found a job?' she asked, delighted.
'Well, yes,' returned the perfidious Alick; 'I think I'll start to-
day.'
And so, well lined with eggs, start he did, but for America. I am
afraid that landlady has seen the last of him.
It was easy enough to get on board in the confusion that attends a
vessel's departure; and in one of the dark corners of Steerage No.
1, flat in a bunk and with an empty stomach, Alick made the voyage
from the Broomielaw to Greenock. That night, the ship's yeoman
pulled him out by the heels and had him before the mate.
