quarantine. I haven't the smallpox. I wasn't even exposed to it."

"There's nothing else to do," said Stephens. "I'll isolate you in
the deck smoking-cabin. God knows what these madmen on board will
do when they hear about it, though. They're apt to tear you to
shreds. They're crazy!"

Glenister had been thinking rapidly.

"If you do that, you'll have mutiny in an hour. This isn't the
crowd to stand that sort of thing."

"Bah! Let 'em try it. I'll put 'em down." The officer's square
jaws clicked.

"Maybe so; but what then? We reach Nome and the Health Inspector
hears of small-pox suspects, then we're all quarantined for thirty
days; eight hundred of us. We'll lie at Egg Island all summer
while your company pays five thousand a day for this ship. That's
not all. The firm is liable in damages for your carelessness in
letting disease aboard."

"MY CARELESSNESS!" The old man ground his teeth.

"Yes; that's what it amounts to. You'll ruin your owners, all
right. You'll tie up your ship and lose your job, that's a cinch!"

Captain Stephens wiped the moisture from his brow angrily.

"My carelessness! Curse you--you say it well. Don't you realize