It was late afternoon when, finally, Zeke aroused himself to think of the necessities of his position. Then, after a hasty and economical meal at a lunch counter near the water-front, he made haste to the pier, where his attention was at once riveted on an Old Dominion Liner, which was just backing out into the river. He watched the great bulk, fascinated, while it turned, and moved away down the harbor, to vanish beyond Sewall's Point, on its way toward Hampton Roads. Immediately afterward, his attention was attracted to a much smaller steamer, which drew in on the opposite side of the wharf. There chanced to be no one else near, and, as the boat slid into the slip, a man in the bow hurled a coil of rope toward Zeke, with an aim so accurate that it fell across Zeke's shoulder.
"Don't dodge it, you lubber!" the man roared, in answer to the mountaineer's instinctive movement. "Haul it in, an' make fast to the punchin'."
Zeke obeyed readily enough, hauled in the hawser, and made the loop fast over the piling. At the same moment, he saw two negroes, blacker from soot and grime than nature had made them, who leaped down from the deck, and scampered out of sight. He heard the captain in the pilot-house shouting down the tube.
"There go your----nigger stokers on the run."
Zeke could both see and hear the man in the engine-room, who vowed profanely that he would ship a pair of white men, to sail before ten that night. It seemed to the listener that the situation might develop to his advantage. When, presently, the captain descended to the dock, Zeke made bold to accost that red-faced and truculent-appearing person. Much to his surprise, his request for work met with an amiable reply. The captain verified what Zeke already knew, that the engineer had need of men, and bade the inquirer get aboard and offer himself.
In the engine-room, the harried chief scowled on the intruder.
"What the devil do you want?" he cried harshly.
But Zeke's purpose was too earnest to be put down by mere ungraciousness.
"Work," he replied with a smile.
Something in the applicant's aspect mitigated the engineer's asperity.
"Ever fire a boiler?" he questioned, more affably.
"Yes, an' no," Zeke answered; "not any real steam b'iler. But, when hit comes to keepin' a hick'ry fire under a copper kittle, an' not scorchin' the likker, wall, I 'lows as how I kin do hit. An' when it comes to makin' o' sorghum m'lasses, I hain't never tuk off my hat to nobody yit. Fer the keepin' o' proper temp'rature folks says, I'm 'bout's good's anybody in Wilkes."