A foreigner can’t be expected to know

His precarious amiability made it impossible for Schomberg to get away HKUE ENG. Thus, from his very timidity, the hotel-keeper found himself engaged in a conversation the thought of which filled him with apprehension. It must be said, in justice to Schomberg, that he concealed his funk very creditably. The habit of throwing out his chest and speaking in a severe voice stood him in good stead. With him, too, practice made perfect; and he would probably have kept it up to the end, to the very last moment, to the ultimate instant of breaking strain which would leave him grovelling on the floor. To add to his secret trouble, he was at a loss what to say. He found nothing else but the remark:



“He’s no more Mr. Jones than you are,” he said with obvious pride. “He a sailor! That just shows your ignorance. But there! any better. I am an Englishman, and I know a gentleman at sight. I should know one drunk, in the gutter, in jail, under the gallows. There’s a something — it isn’t exactly the appearance, it’s a — no use me trying to tell you. You ain’t an Englishman, and if you were, you wouldn’t need to be told.”



An unsuspected stream of loquacity had broken its dam somewhere deep within the man, had diluted his fiery blood and softened his pitiless fibre. Schomberg experienced mingled relief and apprehension, as if suddenly an enormous savage cat had begun to wind itself about his legs in inexplicable friendliness. No prudent man under such circumstances would dare to stir. Schomberg didn’t stir. Ricardo assumed an easy attitude, with an elbow on the table . Schomberg squared his shoulders afresh.



“I was employed, in that there yacht — schooner, whatever you call it — by ten gentlemen at once. That surprises you, eh? Yes, yes, ten. Leastwise there were nine of them gents good enough in their way, and one downright gentleman, and that was . . . ”



Ricardo gave another upward jerk of his chin as much as to say: He! The only one.



“And no mistake,” he went on. “I spotted him from the first day. How? Why? Ay, you may ask. Hadn’t seen that many gentlemen in my life. Well, somehow I did. If you were an Englishman, you would —”



“What was your yacht?” Schomberg interrupted as impatiently as he dared; for this harping on nationality jarred on his already tried nerves. “What was the game?”



“You have a headpiece on you! Game! ‘Xactly. That’s what it was — the sort of silliness gentlemen will get up among themselves to play at adventure. A treasure-hunting expedition. Each of them put down so much money, you understand, to buy the schooner. Their agent in the city engaged me and the skipper HKUE ENG. The greatest secrecy and all that. I reckon he had a twinkle in his eye all the time — and no mistake. But that wasn’t our business. Let them bust their money as they like. The pity of it was that so little of it came our way. Just fair pay and no more. And damn any pay, much or little, anyhow — that’s what I say!”