Page:Richard Marsh--The joss, a reversion.djvu/187

Rh the ship alongside, and the owners found that there was scarcely enough on board to pay expenses, they didn’t like it. I got my marching ticket, and Mr. George Kingdon was in command instead. If it hadn’t been that I’d got a little money of my own, I should have been on my beam ends before now.”

“Do I gather that you complain of the way in which the owners of The Flying Scud have treated you?”

“Not a bit of it; nothing of the kind. The only person I complain of is—we’ll say a party. If I got that, we’ll say, party, alone in a nice quiet little spot for about ten minutes, after that time I wouldn’t complain of him. The complaint would be on the other foot.”

“Then do you wish me to assist you in a scheme of assault and battery?”

“I don’t want that either. The fact is, it’s a queer story. You wouldn’t believe me if I told it; no one has done yet, so I’m not going to try my luck again with you. What I want to know is this. Suppose I ship, we’ll say, a man, and that, we’ll say, man, undertakes to hand over certain—well, articles, to pay for passage, and deposits certain other articles by way of earnest money. Before the ship reaches port that, we’ll say, man, vanishes into air, the articles which were to have been handed over, vanish with him, and the deposit likewise. What offence has that, we’ll say, man, been guilty of against the English law?”

“Your point is a knotty one. Where was the deposit?”

“In a locker in my cabin.”

“Secured by lock and key?”

“Secured by lock and key. And the key was in my pocket”

“How was it taken out?”

“That’s what I want to know.”