At the bottom of the Abyss he performed as purely an altruistic act as was ever performed outside the Abyss.

It was fine of Ginger, and if the old woman caught some contagion from the "no end o' meat" on the pork-ribs, it was still fine, though not so fine.

But the most salient thing in this incident, it seems to me, is poor Ginger, "clean crazy" at sight of so much food going to waste.
It is the rule of the casual ward that a man who enters must stay two nights and a day; but I had seen sufficient for my purpose, had paid for my skilly and canvas, and was preparing to run for it.
"Come on, let's sling it," I said to one of my mates, pointing toward the open gate through which the dead waggon had come.
"An' get fourteen days ?" "No; get away." "Aw, I come 'ere for a rest," he said complacently.

"An' another night's kip won't 'urt me none." They were all of this opinion, so I was forced to "sling it" alone.
"You cawn't ever come back 'ere again for a doss," they warned me.
"No fear," said I, with an enthusiasm they could not comprehend; and, dodging out the gate, I sped down the street.
Straight to my room I hurried, changed my clothes, and less than an hour from my escape, in a Turkish bath, I was sweating out whatever germs and other things had penetrated my epidermis, and wishing that I could stand a temperature of three hundred and twenty rather than two hundred and twenty..