THE STOWAWAY
I NOW crept along the deck to the capstan and hid in the oil save-all
beneath the windlass.
As all remained quiet, and not a soul hove in sight, I climbed out
of my nook, took off my boots, and stowed them away under a stack of
timber in a corner of the fore-deck. I now proceeded to investigate
in my stockinged feet. When I looked down from a corner astern the
fore-deck to the cargo-deck I staggered back suddenly. Breathlessly,
but without turning a hair, I remained leaning against the ventilator.
Below, on the cargo-deck, stood two sentries, who were staring fixedly
upwards.
After I had remained for over half an hour in this cramped position,
and my knees were beginning to knock under, there tripped two
stewardesses from the middle-deck. They were apparently coming off
night duty My two sentries immediately seized the golden moment, and
became so absorbed in their conversation that they no longer paid any
attention to what was going on around them.
The dawn was breaking, and I had to act at once if I was not to lose
all I had achieved at such a price.
I let myself down along the counter on the side of the fore-deck
opposite to the two loving couples, and landed on the cargo-deck.
Without pausing for a moment I stepped out gently, glided past the
two sentries, reached the promenade-deck safely, and, climbing up a
deck-pillar, found myself shortly afterwards on the out-board side of a
life-boat.
Holding on with one hand with a grip of iron, for the Thames was
lapping hungrily not 12 yards away, with my other, aided by my teeth, I
tore open a few of the tapes of the boat-cover, and with a last output
of strength I crept through this small gap and crouched, well hidden
from curious eyes, into the interior of the boat.
And then, naturally, I came to the end of my endurance. The prodigious
physical exertions, acute excitement, and last, but not least, my
ravenous hunger, stretched me flat on the boards of the boat, and in
the same moment I no longer knew what was going on around me.