The Narrow Corner Read Online Free PDF Page A

business with ’im. I told the boy in the store to tell the old fellow I was ’ere.”
    “I know. He told me.”
    “You seen ’im, then? Did ’e say anythin’ about me?”
    “Yes, he said you’d better get out of here pretty damn quick.”
    “Why, what’s ’e got against me?”
    “He didn’t say.”
    “We ’ad a bit of a disagreement, I know that, but that was donkey’s years ago. There’s no sense in ’oldin’ a thing up against a fellow all that while. Forgive and forget, I say.”
    Captain Nichols had the unusual trait that he could play a mean trick on a man without bearing him any ill feeling afterwards, and he could not understand that the injured party might continue to harbour malice. Dr. Saunders noticed the idiosyncrasy with amused detachment.
    “My impression is that Kim Ching has a good memory,” he said.
    They talked of one thing and another.
    “Do you know,” said the captain suddenly, “I don’t believe I’m goin’ to ’ave dyspepsia to-night. Say, what was that stuff you give me?”
    “A little preparation that I’ve found useful in chronic cases like yours.”
    “I wish you’d give me some more of it.”
    “It mightn’t do you any good next time. What you want is treatment.”
    “Do you think you could cure me?”
    The doctor saw his opportunity coming.
    “I don’t know about that. If I could watch you for a few days and try one or two things, I might be able to do something for you.”
    “I’ve got a good mind to stay on ’ere for a bit and let you see. We’re in no ’urry.”
    “What about Kim Ching?’
    “What can ’e do?”
    “Come off it,” said Fred Blake. “We don’t want to get into any trouble here. We’re sailing to-morrow.”
    “It’s all right for you to talk. You don’t suffer like what I do. Look ’ere, I’ll tell you what I’ll do, I’ll go and see the old devil to-morrow and find out what ’e’s got against me.”
    “We’re sailing to-morrow,” repeated the other.
    “We’re sailin’ when I say we sail.”
    The two men looked at one another for an instant. The skipper smiled with his usual foxy geniality, but Fred Blake frowned with sullen anger. Dr. Saunders interrupted the quarrel that was in the air.
    “I don’t suppose you know Chinamen as well as Ido, Captain, but you must know something about them. If they’ve got their knife into you they’re not going to let you off for the asking.”
    The skipper thumped his fist on the table.
    “Well, it was only a matter of a couple of ’undred quid. Old Kim’s as rich as be damned. What difference can that make to ’im? He’s an old crook, anyway.”
    “Have you never noticed that nothing hurts the feelings of a crook so much as to have another crook do the dirty on him?”
    Captain Nichols wore a moody scowl. His little greenish eyes, set too close together, seemed to converge as he shot a bitter glance into space. He looked a very ugly customer. But at the doctor’s remark he threw back his head and laughed.
    “That’s a good one. I like you, doc, you don’t mind what you say, do you? Well, it takes all sorts to make a world. Keep your eyes skinned and let the devil take the ’indmost, that’s what I say. And when you see a chance of makin’ a bit you’re a fool if you don’t take it. Of course everyone makes a mistake now and again. But you can’t always tell beforehand ’ow things are goin’ to turn out.”
    “If the doctor gives you some more of that stuff and tells you what to do, you’ll be all right,” said Blake.
    He had recovered his temper.
    “No, I won’t do that,” said Dr. Saunders. “But I’lltell you what: I’m fed up with this God-forsaken island and I want to get out; if you’ll give me a passage on the lugger to Timor or Macassar or Surabaya, you shall have all the treatment you want.”
    “That’s an idea,” said Captain Nichols.
    “A damned rotten one,” cried the other.
    “Why?”
    “We can’t carry passengers.”
    “We can