CHAPTER XXVI.
A NICE LITTLE GAME.
It was natural enough that the "mud-clerk" on the old steamboat Iatan should take a fancy to the "striker," as the engineer's apprentice was called.

Especially since the striker know so much more than the mud-clerk, and was able to advise him about many things.

A striker with so much general information was rather a novelty, and all the officers fancied him, except Sam Munson, the second engineer, who had a natural jealousy of a striker that knew more than he did.
The striker had learned rapidly, and was trusted to stand a regular watch.

The first engineer and the third were together, and the second engineer and the striker took the other watch.

The boat in this way got the services of a competent engineer while paying him only a striker's wage.
About the time the heavily-laden Iatan turned out of the Mississippi into the Ohio at Cairo at six in the evening, the striker went off watch, and he ought to have gone to bed to prepare himself for the second watch of the night, especially as he would only have the dog-watch between that and the forenoon.