“I suppose I might as well earn a bit,” I admitted, hesitatingly.  “Only I had about decided I’d enlist, if the war was still going on when we got up there.”

“That’ll be all right.  We’ll keep yer busy til’ then, enyhow.  Go on down below now, an’ eat, an’ when yer git through, climb up the ladder, an’ report ter me.  What’ll I call yer?”

“Steve.”

“Steve—­hey; sorter handy man, ain’t yer?”

“Well, I’ve done a little of everything in my time.  I’m not afraid to work.”

During most of the remaining hours of the morning the mate kept me employed below, in company with a number of others of the crew, in sorting over the miscellaneous cargo, which had evidently been very hastily loaded.  I began to think that I had made a wrong choice, and that, in the guise of a passenger, with the freedom of the upper decks, my chances for observation would have been decidedly better.  The work was hard, and dirty, and, after a few hours of it, I must have looked my assumed part to perfection.  However, it was now too late to assert myself, and I could only trust blindly to Fate to furnish me with the information I needed.  Mapes merely glanced in upon us occasionally, leaving the overseeing of the gang to a squatty, red-faced white man, whose profanity never ceased.  There were ten of us in the gang, several being negroes, and I was unable to extract any information of value from those I attempted to converse with.  One had assisted in rescuing the party from the wrecked keel-boat, and had seen the two women, as they came aboard under the glare of a torch, but his description of their appearance was far from clear, and as to what had become of them since, he knew nothing.

As we worked in the heat and dirt below, the steamer steadily plowed its way up stream, meeting with no vessel bound down, or even a drifting barge; nor did I perceive the slightest sign of any settlement along the banks.  Our course ran zig-zag from shore to shore in an endeavor to follow the main channel, and progress was slow, the wheelsman evidently not being well acquainted with the stream.  The cry of a leadsman forward was almost constant.  Once we tied up against the western bank for nearly an hour to remove a bit of driftwood from the wheel, and I heard voices speaking above on the upper deck as though passengers were grouped along the rail.  I obtained no glimpse of these, however, although one of the negroes informed me that there were several army officers on board.  The possibility that some of these might recognize me was not a pleasant thought.  I saw nothing of the captain, but heard him shouting orders to the men engaged tinkering at the paddle-wheel.  The overseer gave me a hat which added little to my personal appearance, and by the time we were called to knock off for the noon meal, I was thoroughly tired, and disgusted, feeling as much a roustabout as I certainly looked.

The meal was served on an unplaned plank, the ends resting on kegs in front of the boilers.  The unwashed gang simply helped themselves, and then retired to any convenient spot where they chose to eat.  I discovered a fairly comfortable seat on a cracker box, and was still busily munching away on the coarse, poorly-cooked food, when Mapes, prowling about, chanced to spy me among the shadows.