had sailed the previous day, contrary to the expectations of the editors, and of the War Department itself, until the arrival of important despatches from Manila, which made it necessary to start the transport at once with supplies of ammunition.  Archie hardly knew what to do.  He had not anticipated anything like this, and could scarcely think of any plan for a time, but, finally, he proved himself equal to the emergency.  He went to the naval agent and asked him when the transport would be due at Honolulu, and then he ascertained that a passenger steamer sailing for that port on Saturday would reach the destination three days sooner than the transport, so that by taking the liner he would have three extra days in Honolulu, and would be able to reach Manila on schedule time, after all.  He at once decided that this was the thing for him to do, and as soon as he thought of taking the steamer it occurred to him that he might possibly be able to work his way to Honolulu, instead of paying the regular passenger fare, which he knew was high.  So he went down to the great docks, and, after interviewing the second steward, he approached the chief steward himself, and asked if there wasn’t something that he could do aboard the ship to earn his passage.  The chief steward was thoughtful for a time, and finally said, “Well, yes, I believe there is.  We haven’t any one to peel vegetables yet, and if you think you care to do that work I guess we can fix you up all right.”  Archie didn’t wait to consider whether peeling vegetables was hard work or not.  He was too glad to have a position of any kind aboard ship to be particular about what his work was like, so he told the steward that he was willing to take the place.  “Well, be on hand at about eight in the morning, and we’ll see that you get to Honolulu.”

Archie was overjoyed at his good management.  “I am going to save about a hundred dollars,” he said to himself, “and I will have this money to send home to mother.”  The rest of the afternoon and the evening he spent in going about San Francisco, and he found it to be more like New York than any city he had yet seen.  There was the same cosmopolitan crowd on the main thoroughfares, and the same foreign districts here and there throughout the city.  He found a great deal to interest him, especially at the Presidio, where everything connected with the army monopolised his attention.  He made friends with many of the soldiers who were waiting to be sent to the Philippines, and hoped, on leaving, that he would meet some of them there, but he hardly expected that he would meet some of them in such a strange manner as it was his fate to do in Luzon.

After a good night’s rest he was on hand early at the great steamer, where there was such a scene of bustle and confusion as he had never seen before, not even in New York.  There was a throng of men with trucks who were loading the late freight, and there was a constant din of noisy voices, which, combined with the shrieks of escaping steam, made it impossible to carry on a conversation.  Archie hurried aboard to find the steward, who immediately took him into the galley and introduced him to the cook, a large, fat Frenchman, with small, blue eyes set far back in his head.  He seemed to be a pleasant man, and Archie thought that he would like him very much.