Page:The Cannery Boat.pdf/212

202 When he has gone down two or three rungs, he cranes up and shouts to the second detective, “Look here, is this ladder safe?”

“Yes, sir, it’s perfectly safe. Please hurry up.”

Akai lumbers down, but, somehow or other, about half-way his great body gets stuck and he can’t move an inch either way. As the first detective, who carries the lamp, has already reached the bottom, it is quite dark and the second detective unwittingly kicks Akai on the head.

“Ow! You’ve kicked me.”

“Oh, are you there?”

“I can’t go any further.”

“Why?”

“Because of my corpulence. I’m stuck in this hole.”

“Lor, that’s a nice how-d’ye-do. Hey there, Slick, the Professor’s got stuck. Climb up and give a haul at his legs.”

Akai groans and wriggles.

“Can’t you move at all. Professor?” asks the voice above.

“Not an inch. What shall I do?”

“I’ll give a little pull,” says Detective Slick, who has climbed up again, as he pulls at Akai’s feet. But his efforts are fruitless, so he shouts up at his companion, “Hey there, Slim, give him a push.”

“That ain’t no use. I can only push with my boot and I couldn’t go jamming that down on the Professor’s cranium.”

“But what else in the hell can we do if he won’t