with his hand on the knob. The moment he turned the knob the door flew open and he was in the full sweep of the wind. The deck was deserted. The wet ropes strung along it shivered dismally in the wind. Every other moment came the rattle of spray, that rose up in white fringy trees to windward and smashed against him like hail. Without closing the door he crept forward along the deck, clinging as hard as he could to the icy rope. Beyond the spray he could see huge marbled green waves rise in constant succession out of the mist. The roar of the wind in his ears confused him and terrified him. It seemed ages before he reached the door of the forward house that opened on a passage that smelt of drugs; and breathed out air, where men waited in a packed line, thrown one against the other by the lurching of the boat, to get into the dispensary. The roar of the wind came to them faintly, and only now and then the hollow thump of a wave against the bow.
“You sick?” a man asked Fuselli.
“Naw, I'm not sick; but Sarge sent me to get some stuff for some guys that's too sick to move.”
“An awful lot o' sickness on this boat.”
“Two fellers died this mornin' in that there room,” said another man solemnly, pointing over his shoulder with a jerk of the thumb. “Ain't buried 'em yet. It's too rough.”
“What'd they die of?” asked Fuselli eagerly.
“Spinal somethin'....”
“Menegitis,” broke in a man at the end of the line.
“Say, that's awful catchin' ain't it?”
“It sure is.”
“Where does it hit yer?” asked Fuselli.
“Yer neck swells up, an' then you juss go stiff all over,” came the man's voice from the end of the line.
There was a silence. From the direction of the infirmary a man with a packet of medicines in his hand began making his way towards the door.
“Many guys in there?” asked Fuselli in a low voice as the man brushed past him.
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