The Narrow Corner Read Online Free PDF

sign ’im on.”
    “There’s no accommodation.”
    “I guess the doctor ain’t particular.”
    “Not a bit. I’ll bring my own food and drink. I’ll get a lot of canned stuff at Kim Ching’s, and he’s got plenty of beer.”
    “Nothing doing,” said Blake.
    “Look ’ere, young feller-me-lad, who gives orders on this boat, you or me?”
    “Well, if it comes down to brass tacks, I do.”
    “Put that out of your ’ead at once, my lad. I’m skipper and what I say goes.”
    “Whose boat is it?”
    “You know very well whose boat it is.”
    Dr. Saunders watched them curiously. His bright, quick eyes missed nothing. The captain had lost all his geniality and his face was mottled with red. The youth bore a look of thunder. His fists were clenched and his head thrust forward.
    “I won’t have him on the boat and that’s that,” he cried.
    “Oh, come on,” said the doctor, “it’s not going to hurt you. It’ll only be for five or six days. Be a sport. If you won’t take me I shall have to stay here God knows how long.”
    “That’s your look out.”
    “What have you got against me?”
    “That’s my business.”
    Dr. Saunders gave him a questioning glance. Blake was not only angry, he was nervous. His handsome, sullen face was pale. It was curious that he should be so disinclined to let him come on the lugger. In these seas people made no bones about that sort of thing. Kim Ching had said they carried no cargo, but it might be the sort of cargo that did not take up much space and was easily hidden. Neither morphine nor cocaine took up a great deal of room, and there was a lot of money to be made if you could take them to the right places.
    “You’d be doing me a great favour,” he said gently.
    “I’m sorry; I don’t want to seem a rotten sport, but me and Nichols are here on business, and we can’t go out of our way to land a passenger in some place we don’t want to go to.”
    “I’ve known the doctor for twenty years,” said Nichols. “He’s all right.”
    “You never set eyes on him till this morning.”
    “I know all about ’im.” The captain grinned, showing his broken, discoloured little teeth, and Dr. Saunders reflected that he should have them out. “And if what I ’ear is true ’e ain’t got much on any of us.”
    He gave the doctor a shrewd look. It was interesting to see the hardness behind his genial smile. The doctor bore the glance without flinching. You could not have told if the shaft had gone home or if he had no notion of what the skipper was talking.
    “I don’t bother myself much with other people’s concerns,” he smiled.
    “Live and let live, I say,” said the captain, with the amiable toleration of the scamp.
    “When I say no, I mean no,” answered the young man obstinately.
    “Oh, you make me tired,” said Nichols. “There ain’t nothin’ to be scared about.”
    “Who says I’m scared?”
    “I do.”
    “I’ve got nothing to be scared about.”
    They flung the short sentences at one another quickly. Their exasperation was increasing. Dr. Saunders wondered what the secret was that lay between them. It had evidently more to do with Fred Blake than with Nichols. For once the rascal had nothing on his conscience. He reflected that Captain Nichols was not thesort of man who would make it easy for anyone whose secret he knew. He could not exactly tell why, but he had an impression that whatever it was, Captain Nichols did not know but only suspected it. The doctor, however, was very anxious to get on the lugger, and he did not mean to give up the project before he need. It amused him to exercise a certain astuteness to gain his end.
    “Look here, I don’t want to cause a quarrel between you two. If Blake doesn’t want me, let’s say no more about it.”
    “But I want you,” retorted the skipper. “It’s a chance in a million for me. If there’s a man alive as can put my digestion right, it is you, and d’you think I’m goin’ to miss