"Oh, I know I had too much to carry!" he said recklessly. "It made me quarrel with that wretched Legrand, too--a fat-headed fool!"
I rang for water, and mixed two hot jorums of whisky, one of which he sipped contentedly.
"You see, we had a rousing time coming over," he observed, as if in apology. I looked my question, and he answered it. "Hamburg, in the _Sea Queen_. The old man skipped at Tilbury, and Barraclough's a real blazer."
"Which accounts for the blaze I saw," I remarked drily.
"Oh, you saw that. Yes, it was that that made Legrand mad. He's particular. But what's the odds? The boss has to pay."
His eyes roamed about the shabby room--shabby from the wretched pictures on the walls to the threadbare carpet underfoot, and, though he was not a gentleman, I felt some feeling of irritation. Perhaps if he had been a gentleman I should not have been put out at this scrutiny of my poverty.
"You saved me, and that's certain," he began again. "Say, are you a doctor?"
"Well, can you recommend another glass of toddy?" he asked, smiling, and his smile was pleasant.
"In the circumstances again--perhaps," I said.
"Oh, I know I played the fool," he conceded. "But it isn't often I do. I must have gone off in the fog. How did you get at me?"
"That was plucky," he said admiringly. "I don't know two folks I'd risk the same for."
"There wasn't much risk," I answered. "It was only a question of taking a cold bath out of season."
"Well!" he said, and whistled. "There's white people everywhere, I guess. Business good?"
The question was abrupt, and I could not avoid it. "You have your answer," I replied, with a gesture at the room, and taking out my cigar-case I offered him one.
He accepted it, bit off the end, and spat it on the floor, as if preoccupied. His brow wrinkled, as if the mental exercise were unusual and difficult.
"The _Sea Queen_ is a rum bird," he said presently, "but there's plenty of money behind. And she wants a doctor."
"We left a Scotch chap sick at Hamburg," he continued. "The boss is a secret beggar, with pots of money, they say. We chartered out of the Clyde, and picked him up at Hamburg--him and others."
"You may call it that. If it ain't that I don't know what it is, and I ought to know, seeing I am purser. We've all signed on for twelve months, anyway. Now, doctor, we want a doctor."