"
"There's no man living who could do more usefully with L50 if I saw my
way of fingering it."
"I think I see what you mean. No, you won't have to wait for it. I've
got the money here in hard cash in my pocket ready for you to take over
the minute it's earned."
"I was wondering, sir, if I could earn it honorably. You must give me
time to think this out. I'll try and give you an answer after tea. And
for the present I shall have to leave you. I've got to go through the
ship's papers: I have to be my own clerk on board here just now, though
the Company did certainly promise me a much better ship if I beat up
plenty of cargo, and made a good voyage of it with this."
The _Parakeet_ worked her way along down the Red Sea at her steady nine
knots, and Mr. Hugh Wenlock put a couple of bunk pillows on a canvas
boat-cover under the bridge deck awnings, and lay there and amused
himself with cigarettes and a magazine. Captain Owen Kettle sat before a
table in the chart-house with his head on one side, and a pen in his
fingers, and went through accounts. But though Wenlock, when he had
finished his magazine, quickly went off to sleep, Captain Kettle's
struggles with arithmetic were violent enough to keep him very
thoroughly awake, and when a due proportion of the figures had been
checked, he put the papers in a drawer, and was quite ready to tackle
the next subject.
Pages:
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253