Dr. Tansey, when he returned to his office after the encounter with Professor Armstrong began to make ready his own affairs preparatory to departing for the south on his mission of science, and his study of malignant forms of yellow fever and typhoid. When all his affairs were placed in order he boarded a train for New York, from which place he set out by boat for Charleston, South Carolina, his first stopping place.
His ship had been out two days before he was able to be about the deck, owing to his inability to withstand the effects of seasickness. No matter how many times he had taken trips he always was seasick the first two days out. Because of this illness he failed to learn that another passenger, with whom he was acquainted was also taking the trip. This was Truman Bennet.
In mid afternoon on the third day out, Dr. Tansey felt able to forsake his stateroom for a little time on deck and climbed the saloon stairs. The effort was a struggle to him, in his weakened state but he finally made the distance and was resting his hands on the railpost to steady himself as well as to find a location unengaged when he almost lost the strength of his legs and sank back down the stairs. He gazed across the deck straight into the eyes of Truman Bennet. Bennet could not believe his eyes for a moment; when he realized it was the Doctor, he sprang across the deck in two leaps and was just in time to save the physician from falling. The latter's face had gone pale with surprise and pleasure.
"Dr. Tansey" Bennet exclaimed wringing the hand he had clasped.
"Well, Bennet," the other returned. "You're the last man I expected to see on this boat. What are you going south for?"
"I'll ask the same of you, Doctor? Where are you bound? Jove, this is a treat."
"I'm bound on a scientific mission. I suppose you'll say the same thing. I'll bet I can guess, though," as an after thought. "I thought you were cured of that blow on the head you got last fall. Too bad! Too bad! My surgery is getting way off. I thought I had you cured."
Both men laughed happily, as Truman piloted the other to a seat at his side of the ship. After Bennet had seen that the doctor was comfortable he also took a seat.
"Have a cigar," said Dr. Tansey, tendering Bennet the case as he took one himself.
"No, thank you. Don't smoke."
"This is off-season now. You won't be breaking training by smoking. I won't tell the coach," chafed the doctor.
"You know I never smoked," Bennet smiled back.
"No, I don't know anything about it. Put it this way. I never caught you smoking. How's that."
The two men laughed heartily again. Doctor Tansy was happy as a boy. He was very fond of Bennet, in his own way.
"Where's the young woman? I didn't know she was in the South. What's she doing down here this time of year?"
"Somewhere up in the Palmetto state, I don't know where.—Have the address.—Going to find out."
Dr. Tansey looked at the young man shrewdly—studiously, for some minutes then asked, "Does she know who you are?"
"Foolish question. Do you think I'd deceive the girl I loved?"
"I beg pardon, Old Boy. I wanted to be sure.—You're either a fool or you've got the nerve of ten brass monkeys.—No fool like a young lover," added the doctor, paraphrasing the old saw. "Know anybody down here?"
"Not a soul that I'm aware of."
"Well, you'll have to be very careful. These people are very funny. They're very touchy on the race question. So, talk but little. Mind your own business."—After a considerable pause.—"What you need is a guardian angel—or a keeper.—You'll get along, I guess."
"Oh, I realize the dangers. I got an idea from Professor Armstrong," vouchsafed Bennet.
"By the way, he's down here somewhere," continued Dr. Tansey. "He's rabid on the subject. But he's as mild as a June day compared with some. I don't believe I'm going to get along down here. So have a care. Have a care, son. Where're you stopping, when you get to Charleston?"
"Don't know. Some hotel."
"Humph!—Better come with me—till you start inland."
"All right, Doctor. Thanks, very many thanks."
The remainder of the voyage passed very pleasantly. Doctor Tansey recovered his sea legs rapidly and before the trip ended was debating the Negro question with the best of them on board. He defended the black man so vehemently that the captain of the ship deemed it wise to caution him, when they were just about to enter Charleston Harbor. Dr. Tansey and Bennet were, as was their habit, standing far up in the bow of the ship when the Captain saw them and leaned out of the pilot house to shout:
"Hey, Doctor!"
Dr. Tansey and Bennet whirled.
"Come up here," he beckoned. The two men lost no time in accepting the invitation. When they stepped into the wheelhouse, the Captain gave the wheel to another officer and turned: "You men are from up North. I've heard some of your talk and I want to caution you for your own good. Better let that subject alone down here. It's a southern question and we're—they're settling it in their own way."
"Why do you people insist on having your own way with the question?" asked Dr. Tansey.
"Because we know the black man best. We love the black man—in his place."
"Under your feet, I suppose?"
"Well, pretty much so. You've got to keep him down in his place. This is a white man's country. This is a white man's civilization."
"Are you afraid to let anybody else have a little bit of it? The white man is supposed to be fair. I always hear the boast about Anglo-Saxon fair play. I see but little of it, though, as I travel about. I'd like to see more. Why do you people in the South insist on foisting your beliefs upon everybody else? Don't you give anybody else credit for knowing anything besides yourself. Are you afraid of your own laws—of your own selves. You act as if you were not sure of your own ground."
"No sir.—No sir. Not where the Negro comes into the discussion. They're no good. Never were any good—and never will be any good."
"If I remember history at all, they were very good when the plantation owners marched away to fight to keep them slaves, and they remained behind caring for the families and farms of those who were fighting to hold them in bondage.—It strikes me that is a pretty good sort of a man to cling to. Anglo-Saxon civilization can't show anything any better than that. Besides, though you may not admit it, the Negro is the bone and sinew of your financial and economic structure. The South lives off the Negro.
"It strikes me that they are pretty good when they are the backbone of your country economically. They may be lazy and shiftless but it seems to me they do all the work; at least all the real work. Of course, your white collar work—work in the shade; where the hours are short and the labor nil you people shine. I'll bet there'd be an awful howl sent to heaven, if by any chance, there should be a sudden exodus of black men from this section. Why your industry would be paralyzed.
"You tell that stuff to the Marines," Dr. Tansey continued. "I think the white race all over the world has been too easily gulled by you folks and your doctrines. Most of the blacks I've come into contact with have been at least on par with the whites, and better than many of those we welcome from European countries. No, Captain. Thank you for your advice. Prudently, it is well given, but just the same it's the white race that's largely at fault, and it's time the white race got onto its job. You people are blessed and don't know it."
"Just the same, you'd better mind your own business and keep mum on the Negro question, if you want to stay here."
He took the wheel again, as if to end the conversation. Dr. Tansey and Bennet left the pilot house for the deck below and stood at the rail as the ship passed Fort Sumter, lapped by the muddy waters of the harbor. As the ship rounded up to her pier, from the wharves of cotton bales, barrels of resin, and other products waiting to be shipped North, there rose, seemingly a small battalion of Negro stevedores and roustabouts, shouting, laughing, singing and dancing, waiting with eager hands to grasp the hawsers that would moor the ship so they could begin their task of unloading and reloading the vessel. At the passenger gangplank stood a dozen or more boys of all shades, hands covered with white gloves, ready to step aboard ship and assist the passengers in debarking and departing for their various destinations.
Dr. Tansey and Bennet stood at the rail watching the scene. Bennet, unaccustomed to the sight of so many black faces was awe-struck. Dr. Tansey had experienced scenes of animation such as this many times in his travels. After the two had stood in silence for a time, allowing Bennet to absorb the variety of the life, Dr. Tansey turned to him with:
"There, Bennet, is your first rub with and against the Negro problem as the South faces it. Just watch those fellows unload ship. Yet the Captain calls them no good, lazy and shiftless. Could you get a white man to work like that in this climate? I guess not."