What were those two to each other?  I could not guess, for they seemed from two utterly different worlds.  Not brother and sister surely; and not lovers.  The last was unthinkable.  Perhaps mere chance acquaintances, who had drifted together since coming aboard.  It seems strange that at such a moment my attention should have thus centered on these two, yet I think now that either one would have awakened my interest wherever we had met.  Instinctively I disliked the man, aware of an instant antagonism, realizing that he was evil; while his companion came to me as revealment of all that was true and worthy, in a degree I had never known before.  I could not banish either from my mind.  For months I had been in prison, expecting a death sentence, much of the time passed in solitary confinement, and now, with that cloud lifted, I had come forth into a fresh existence only to be confronted by this man and woman, representing exact opposites.  Their peculiarities took immediate possession of a mind entirely unoccupied, nor did I make any effort to banish them from my thought.  From the instant I looked upon these two I felt convinced that, through some strange vagary of fate, we were destined to know more of each other; that our life lines were ordained to touch, and become entangled, somewhere in that mystery of the Western World to which I had been condemned.  I cannot analyze this conception, but merely record its presence; the thought took firm possession of me.  Under the circumstances I was too far away to overhear conversation.  The shuffling of feet, the rattling of chains, the harsh voices of the guard, made it impossible to distinguish any words passing between the two.  I could only watch them, quickly assured that I had likewise attracted the girl’s attention, and that her gaze occasionally sought mine.  Then the guards came to me, and, with my limbs freed of fetters, I was passed down the steep ladder into the semi-darkness between decks, where we were to be confined.  The haunting memory of her face accompanied me below, already so clearly defined as to be unforgettable.

It proved a dismal, crowded hole in which we were quartered like so many cattle, it being merely a small space forward, hastily boxed off by rough lumber, the sides and ends built up into tiers of bunks, the only ventilation and light furnished by the open hatch above.  The place was clean enough, being newly fitted for the purpose, but was totally devoid of furnishings, the only concession to comfort visible was a handful of fresh straw in each bunk.  The men, herded and driven down the ladder, were crowded into the central space, the majority still on their feet, but a few squatting dejectedly on the deck.  In the dim twilight of that bare interior their faces scarcely appeared natural, and they conversed in undertones.  Most of the fellows were sober and silent, not a bad lot to my judgment, with only here and there a countenance exhibiting viciousness, or a tongue given to ribaldry.