Уильям Моэм - The Narrow Corner

“He looked at me pretty sharp when I said this. I knew he didn’t ’alf like the idea of ’er goin’ to the police.

“‘It’ll look funny, a master mariner disappearin’ like this. I mean, it ain’t like as if I was a blackfellow or a Kanaka. Of course I don’t know if there’s anyone ’as reason to be inquisitive. There’s a lot of nosey–parkers about, especially just now with the election comin’ on.’

“I couldn’t ’elp thinking’ I got a good one in there, about the election, but ’e didn’t let on a thing. His great ugly face might ’a’ been a blank wall.

“‘I’ll go and see ’er meself,’ ’e said.

“I ’ad me own game to play, too, and I wasn’t goin’ to let a chance like this pass me by.

“‘Tell ’er the first mate of a steamer broke his neck just as she was going out and they took me on and I didn’t ’ave time to go ’ome and she’ll ’ear from me next from Cape Town.’

“‘That’s the ticket,’ says ’e.

“‘An’ if she kicks up a racket give ’er a passage to Cape Town and a five–pound note. That’s not askin’ much.’

“He laughed then, honest, and ’e said ’e’d do it.

“He finished ’is beer and I finished mine.

“‘Now then,’ says ’e, ‘if you’re ready we’ll be startin’.’ He looked at ’is watch. ‘You meet me at the corner of Market Street in ’alf an hour. I’ll drive by in my car and you just jump in. You go out first. No need for you to go out by the bar. There’s a door at the end of the passage. You take that and you’ll find yourself in the street.’

“‘O.K.,’ says I, and I takes me ’at.

“‘There’s just one thing I’d like to say to you,’ ’e says, as I was going. ‘An’ this refers to now and later. If you don’t want a knife in your back or a bullet in your guts you better not try no monkey tricks. See?’

“He said it quite pleasant, but I’m no fool, and I knew ’e meant it.

“‘Don’t you ’ave no fear,’ says I. ‘When a chap treats me like a gentleman, I behave like one.’ Then very casual like, ‘Young feller on board, I suppose?’

“‘No, ’e ain’t. Comin’ on board later.’

“I walked out and I got into the street. I walked along to where he said. It was only a matter of two ’undred yards. I thought to meself if ’e wanted me to wait there for ’alf an hour it was because he ’ad to go and see someone and say what ’ad ’appened. I couldn’t ’elp wonderin’ what the police’d say if I told ’em somethin’ funny was up and it’d be worth their while to follow the car and ’ave a look at this ketch. But I thought p’raps it wouldn’t be worth my while. It’s all very well to do a public duty, and I don’t mind bein’ in well with the cops any more than anyone else does, but it wouldn’t do me much good if I got a knife in me belly for me pains. And there was no four ’undred quid to be got out of them. P’raps it’s just as well I didn’t try any ’anky–panky on with Ryan, because I see a chap on the other side of the street, standin’ in the shadow as if ’e didn’t want no one to see ’im, and it looked to me as if ’e was watchin’ me. I walked over to ’ave a look at ’im and ’e walked away when he saw me comin’, then I walked back again and he come and stood just where ’e was before. Funny. It was all damned funny. The thing what grizzled me was that Ryan ’adn’t shown more confidence in me. If you’re goin’ to trust a man, trust ’im, that’s what I say. I want you to understand I didn’t mind its bein’ funny. I seen a lot of funny things in my day and I take ’em as they come.”

Dr. Saunders smiled. He began to understand Captain Nichols. He was a man who found the daily round of honest life a trifle humdrum. He needed a spice of crookedness to counteract the depression his dyspepsia caused him. His blood ran faster, he felt better in health, his vitality was heightened when his fingers dabbled in crime. The alertness he must then exercise to protect himself from harm took his mind off the processes of his lamentable digestion. If Dr. Saunders was somewhat lacking in sympathy, he made up for it by being uncommonly tolerant. He thought it no business of his to praise or condemn. He was able to recognise that one was a saint and another a villain, but his consideration of both was fraught with the same cool detachment.

“I couldn’t ’elp laughin’ as I thought of meself standin’ there,” continued the skipper, “and startin’ off on a cruise without so much as a change of clothes, me shavin’ tackle or a toothbrush. You wouldn’t find many men as’d be prepared to do that and not give a tinker’s cuss.”

“You wouldn’t,” said the doctor.

“And then I thought of the face my old woman’d make when Ryan told ’er I’d sailed. I can just see ’er toddlin’ off to Cape Town by the next ship. She’ll never find me no more. This time I ’ ave got away from her. And who’d ’ave thought it’d come like that just when I was thinkin’ I couldn’t stand another day of it. If it wasn’t Providence, I don’t know what it was.”

“Its ways are always said to be inscrutable.”

“Don’t I know it? Brought up a Baptist, I was. ‘Not a sparrow shall fall—’ you know ’ow it goes. I seen it come true over and over again. And then after I’d been waitin’ there a bit, a good ’alf hour, a car come along and stops just by me. ‘Jump in,’ says Ryan, and off we go. The roads are terrible bad round Sydney and we was bumpin’ up and down like a cork in the water. Pretty fast he drove.

“‘What about stores and all that?’ I says to Ryan.

“‘It’s all on board,’ ’e says. ‘You got enough to last you three months.’

“I didn’t know where ’e was goin’. Dark night and I couldn’t see a thing; it must ’ave been gettin’ on for midnight.

“‘Here we are,’ ’e says, and stops. ‘Get out.’

“I got out and ’e got out after me. He turns off ’is lights. I knew we was pretty near the sea, but I couldn’t see a yard in front of me. He ’ad an electric torch.

“‘You follow me,’ ’e says, ’an’ look where you’re goin’.’

“We walked a bit. A sort of pathway there was. I’m pretty nimble on me feet, but I nearly come arse over tip two or three times. ‘Nice thing if I break my bloody leg goin’ down ’ere,’ I says to meself. I wasn’t ’alf glad when we come to the bottom and I felt the beach under me feet. You could see the water, but you couldn’t see nothin’ else. Ryan give a whistle. Someone on the water shouted, but low, if you know what I mean, and Ryan flashed his torch to show where we was. Then I ’eard oars splashin’ and in a minute or two a couple of blackfellows rowed up in the dinghy. Ryan and me, we got in, and they pushed off. If I’d ’ad twenty quid on me I wouldn’t ’ave given much for my chances of ever seein’ Australia no more. Australia felix, by gum. We rowed for about ten minutes, I should say, and then we come alongside the ketch.

“‘What d’you think of ’er?’ asks Ryan, when we got on board.

“‘Can’t see much,’ says I. ‘Tell you more in the morning.’

“‘In the morning you got to be well out to sea,’ says Ryan.

“‘When’s this poor invalid boy comin’?’ says I.

“‘Pretty soon now,’ says Ryan. ‘You go down into the cabin and light the lamp and ’ave a look round. We’ll ’ave a bottle of beer. Here’s a box of matches.’

“‘Suits me,’ I says, and down I goes.

“I couldn’t see much, but I knew the way about by instinct. And I didn’t go down so quick I couldn’t ’ave a look behind me. I twigged he was up to somethin’. I see ’im give three or four flashes with the torch. ‘’Ullo,’ I says to meself, ‘someone’s watchin’,’ but if it was ashore or on sea, I couldn’t say. Then Ryan comes down and I ’ad a look round. He fished out a bottle of beer for ’isself and a bottle of beer for me.