declared, wrathfully. “I ain’t going to ’ave no one trying to meddle about with my constitootion, never mind ’ow old a friend ’e is!”

p. 29

“And don’t you start thinking evil of me!” returned Mr. Dobb, with spirit. “I won’t ’ave it, neither!”

“Well,” protested Mr. Clark, significantly, “you a-going about with teetotallers!”

“Well, p’r’aps it do look fishy,” conceded Mr. Dobb. “But you oughter know me better than that! You know me motter, Sam, don’t you? ‘Strictly Business!’ Well, my friendship with ’im is strictly business. You don’t suppose I could ever ’ave a friendly friendship with a teetotaller, do you?”

“I should ’ope not, indeed!” answered Mr. Clark, severely.

“I met ’im in the way of business, and I’ve got to know ’im pretty well,” continued Mr. Dobb. “And now there’s something he wants done, and I thought of you for the job at once.”

“Much obliged to you,” said Mr. Clark, stiffly, “but I ain’t sure that I wants to do jobs for teetotallers.”

“Don’t you be a silly old idjit, Sam,” tolerantly recommended Mr. Dobb. “You don’t want to go cutting off your nose to spite your face—particularly with the sort of face you’ve got! I was only speaking figgerative,” he hastened to add, at Mr. Clark’s indignant stare. “Ain’t the old ‘Jane Gladys’ to be sold soon, and won’t you be out of a job then?”

“I was thinking about that when you come down ’ere,” admitted Mr. Clark, sorrowfully.

“Very well, then,” argued Mr. Dobb, “you want to do the best you can for yourself. You take on this ’ere job I’ve mentioned, and you’ll ’ave a nice easy p. 30life ashore for the next week or two, and all the time you can be looking round for a proper job. And you’re far more likely to find one by being on the spot than by rushing round frantic after you’re paid off, ain’t you?”

p. 30

“Of course I am,” agreed Mr. Clark. “And I know the skipper’ll let me go any time I want to. ’E said so, only the night before last, when me and Peter and Joe give ’im a parting present for three-and-nine.”

“There you are!” cried Mr. Dobb. “You take on this job with the chap I’ve brought—Poskett, ’is name is. And while you’re doing it, me and you will keep our eyes skinned to find you 

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