The Nigger of the Narcissus

I

Mr. Baker, chief mate of the ship Narcissus, stepped in one stride out of his lighted cabin into the darkness of the quarterdeck. Above his head, on the break of the poop, the night-watchman rang a double stroke. It was nine o’clock. Mr. Baker, speaking up to the man above him, asked:⁠—“Are all the hands aboard, Knowles?”

The man limped down the ladder, then said reflectively:⁠—

“I think so, sir. All our old chaps are there, and a lot of new men has come.⁠ ⁠… They must be all there.”