Light Freights | Page 3

was all old Sam could do to stop
himself from casting 'im off forever. He was finished at last, and arter
Peter Russet 'ad slipped downstairs and found a bit o' broken
clothes-prop in the yard, and 'e'd been shown 'ow to lean on it and make
a noise, Ginger said as 'ow if Ted Reddish got 'im for a 'undered pounds
'e'd get 'im a bargain.
"'We must 'ave a cab,' ses old Sam.
"'Cab?' ses Ginger. 'What for?'
"'We should 'ave half Wapping following us,' ses Sam. 'Go out and put
your ring up, Ginger, and fetch a cab.'
"Ginger started grumbling, but he went, and presently came back with
the cab and the money, and they all went downstairs leading the wild
man by a bit o' line. They only met one party coming up, and 'e seemed
to remember somethink 'e'd forgotten wot ought to be fetched at once.
"Ginger went out fust and opened the cab-door, and then stood there
waiting becos at the last moment the wild man said the winder-blind
was slipping down. They got 'im out at last, but before 'e could get in
the cab was going up the road at ten miles an hour, with Ginger 'anging
on to the door calling to it to stop.
"It came back at about a mile an' a 'alf an hour, an' the remarks of the
cabman was eggstrordinary. Even when he got back 'e wouldn't start till
'e'd got double fare paid in advance; but they got in at last and drove
off.
"There was a fine scene at Ted Reddish's door. Ginger said that if there
was a bit of a struggle it would be a good advertisement for Ted
Reddish, and they might p'r'aps get more than a 'undered, and all the
three of 'em could do, they couldn't get the wild man out o' that cab,
and the cabman was hopping about 'arf crazy. Every now and then
they'd get the wild man 'arf out, and then he'd get in agin and snarl. 'E

didn't seem to know when to leave off, and Ginger and the others got
almost as sick of it as the cabman. It must ha' taken two years' wear out
o' that cab, but they got 'im out at last, and Reddish's door being open to
see what the row was about, they went straight in.
"'Wot's all this?' ses Reddish, who was a tall, thin man, with a dark
moustache.
"It's a wild man o' Borneo,' ses Ginger, panting; 'we caught 'im in a
forest in Brazil, an' we've come 'ere to give you the fust offer.'
"Ted Reddish was so surprised 'e couldn't speak at fust. The wild man
seemed to take 'is breath away, and 'e looked in a 'elpless kind o' way at
'is wife, who'd just come down. She was a nice-lookin' woman, fat,
with a lot o' yaller hair, and she smiled at 'em as though she'd known
'em all their lives.
"'Come into the parlour,' she ses, kindly, just as Ted was beginning to
get 'is breath.
"They followed 'em in, and the wild man was just going to make hisself
comfortable in a easy-chair, when Ginger give 'im a look, an' 'e curled
up on the 'earthrug instead.
"''E ain't a very fine specimen,' ses Ted Reddish, at last.
"'It's the red side-whiskers I don't like,' ses his wife. 'Besides, who ever
'eard of a wild man in a collar an' necktie?'
"'You've got hold o' the wrong one,' ses Ted Reddish, afore Ginger
Dick could speak up for hisself.
"'Oh, I beg your pardin,' ses Mrs. Reddish to Ginger, very polite. 'I
thought it was funny a wild man should be wearing a collar. It's my
mistake. That's the wild man, I s'pose, on the 'earthrug?'
"That's 'im, mum,' ses old Sam, very short.
"'He don't look wild enough,' ses Reddish.

"'No; 'e's much too tame,' ses 'is wife, shaking her yaller curls.
"The chaps all looked at each other then, and the wild man began to
think it was time he did somethink; and the nearest thing 'andy being
Ginger's leg, 'e put 'is teeth into it. Anybody might ha' thought Ginger
was the wild man then, the way 'e went on, and Mrs. Reddish said that
even if he so far forgot hisself as to use sich langwidge afore 'er, 'e
oughtn't to before a poor 'eathen animal.
"'How much do you want for 'im?' ses Ted Reddish, arter Ginger 'ad got
'is leg away, and taken it to the winder to look at it.
"'One 'undered pounds,' ses old Sam.
"Ted Reddish looked at 'is wife, and they both larfed as though they'd
never leave orf.
"'Why, the market price o' the best wild men