CHAPTER XLIII
We who are aft, besieged in the high place, are stronger in numbers
than I dreamed until now, when I have just finished taking the ship's
census. Of course Margaret, Mr. Pike, and myself are apart. We
alone represent the ruling class. With us are servants and serfs,
faithful to their salt, who look to us for guidance and life.
I use my words advisedly. Tom Spink and Buckwheat are serfs and
nothing else. Henry, the training-ship boy, occupies an anomalous
classification. He is of our kind, but he can scarcely be called
even a cadet of our kind. He will some day win to us and become a
mate or a captain, but in the meantime, of course, his past is
against him. He is a candidate, rising from the serf class to our
class. Also, he is only a youth, the iron of his heredity not yet
tested and proven.
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