"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." 

 "Well," said I, smiling at him. 

 "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." 

 "A pleasure yacht?" I inquired. 

 "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." 

 He laughed, as if this had been a joke, and I stared at him. "You mean," said I slowly, "that I might apply." 

 "If it's worth your while," said he. "You know best." 

 "Well, I don't know about that," I replied. "It depends on a good many things." 

 All the same I knew that I did know best. The whole of my discontent, latent and seething for years, surged up in me. Here was the wretched practice by which I earned a miserable pittance, bad food, and low company. On the pleasure yacht I should at least walk among equals, and feel myself a civilised being. I could dispose of my goodwill for a small sum, and after twelve months—well, something might turn up. At any rate, I should have a year's respite, a year's holiday. 

 I looked across at the purser of the Sea Queen, with his good-looking, easy-natured face, his sleek black hair, and his rather flabby white face, and still I hesitated. 

 "I can make it a dead bird," he said, wagging his head, "and you'll find it pretty comfortable." 

 "Where are you going? The Mediterranean?" I asked. 

 "I haven't the least idea," he said with a frank yawn. "But if your 

 Prev. P 9/230 next