“None too good,” replied the skipper. “What with freights ’way down and the competition of the big liners, it’s all we can do to make a living these days. But come down to the cabin and wet your whistle. Talking’s dry business.”
Connelly needed no urging, and they were soon seated at a table in the cramped cabin, with a bottle and glasses between them.
They talked of indifferent matters for a time, and then Connelly broached the object of his visit.
“Where are you going this trip?” he asked.
“Down the South American coast as far as Rio Janeiro,” was the answer. “Porto Rico will be my first stop.”
“I may finish up loading to-day if I have luck,” replied the skipper. “If so, I’ll get my clearance papers and slip out early to-morrow morning.”
“I suppose you’ve done a bit of shanghaiing in your day, eh, Hennessy?” remarked Connelly, jocularly.
“Many’s the time, especially in the old sailing days,” grinned Hennessy, a light of evil reminiscence in his little eyes. “But there’s little call for it nowadays.”
“I was just wondering,” went on Connelly, “if you’d do me a favor and take a fellow along with you on this trip that doesn’t want to go.”
“It might be managed,” returned the skipper a little doubtfully.
“There’d be a nice little slice of money in it for you,” Connelly explained. “You see it’s a young fellow that’s got in with a wild gang ashore, and his folks think a sea voyage wouldn’t do him any harm.”
Hennessy’s hesitation vanished at the mention of money and his eyes had an avaricious gleam.
“Sure I’ll do it!” he exclaimed. And then, with voices slightly lowered, the pair perfected their scheme.
A little later Connelly left the ship and walked rapidly away with a triumphant glint in his vulture-like eyes.
He found his confederate waiting for him in the same café where they had met the night before. Fleming jumped up from the table at which he had been sitting and came rapidly forward to meet him.
“It’s all right,” responded Connelly. “It didn’t take much urging to turn the trick. I told you he’d be only too glad to oblige me.”
He went over the events of the morning rapidly, and Fleming exulted.
“But the hardest part is yet to come,” Connelly reminded him. “We’ve got the stage set for the play, and the next thing is to have the chief actor on hand when the curtain rings up.” And then the two talked the matter over in detail.