Masters looked at Harrigan, started to laugh, looked again, and then silently held the door open.

Harrigan stepped through it and followed to the forecastle, a dingy retreat in the high bow of the ship.

He had to bend low to pass through the door, and inside he found that he could not stand erect.

It was his first experience of working aboard a ship, and he expected to find a scrupulous neatness, and hammocks in place of beds.

Instead he looked on a double row of bunks heaped with swarthy quilts, and the boatswain with a silent gesture indicated that one of these belonged to Harrigan.