The Devils Admiral | Page 6

passenger-trade
except in cases of emergency or delay of the regular ships. But she
hasn't been in the passenger-trade for nearly a year and we won't
undertake to guarantee the table or service.
"You won't find her equal to a liner, and the ticket is sold with the
understanding that she is a cargo-boat, and if you are willing to take
pot-luck with Captain Riggs, that is your affair. However, it is
understood that you are not to make unreasonable complaints or
demands of the master."

My answer to this was to dump a handful of gold coins on the counter
before he could change his mind. I told him I was willing to go to Hong
Kong in a coal-barge.
"You will find it lonesome on the passage," he said.
"I'll manage all right," I replied, not quite rid of my asperity over their
lack of decision about taking a passenger.
"We have already sold one ticket," continued the clerk, as he put down
figures on a pad. He glanced at me with a quizzical expression, and
then smiled.
"One passenger will help," I commented, for something better to say.
"If he doesn't talk an arm off you before you reach Hong-Kong, I'll give
you the ticket for sixpence. He's a missionary," he grinned.
"The Rev. Luther Meeker!" I cried in horror.
"The Rev. Luther Meeker!" he repeated, and gave me my change with a
chuckle.
Naturally, I was astonished to discover that Meeker was to be a
passenger with me in the Kut Sang, but I was out in the street again
before it dawned upon me that the situation was more than a mere
coincidence. The missionary had lied to me when he said he had been
refused passage, he had misled me when he said it was impossible to
buy a ticket in the Kut Sang, and I could make nothing of it all but that
he did not want me to know he was sailing in the vessel, and that he did
not want me to go in her.
The idea that he would interfere with my plans and delay me for a week
simply because he objected to my presence in the same steamer with
him filled me with wrath. I so lost my temper for a minute that I was
bent on going back to the hotel and knocking him down, missionary or
no missionary; but, instead, came to the conclusion that the joke was on
him, and I would have plenty of opportunities to retaliate upon him

between Manila and Hong-Kong.
Before I got into my quilez my ire was roused again at the sight of the
red-headed beggar lounging in a doorway across the street, obviously
watching me. It was plain enough that Meeker had sent him to spy
upon me and learn if I went to the steamship office. The little beggar
saw me looking at him and dodged into a doorway, but fled when he
saw me start after him.
In the quilez I laughed at myself for allowing a prying old man like
Meeker to upset my temper, and, as I rode back to the hotel, put the
both of them out of my mind; but promised myself that I would take
my revenge on the old pest in some way aboard the steamer.
My bag was packed again, and I was ready for tiffin and then an
afternoon nap, to be called in time to catch the steamer. My telephone
rang, and I hastened to answer it, expecting orders from the cable-office,
and hoping that London had decided, after all, to send me after the
Baltic fleet to the south, rather than to Hong-Kong.
"Is this Mr. Trenholm? This is the steamship office, Mr. Trenholm. We
wish to inform you that the Kut Sang has been delayed until to-morrow
morning for cargo which did not get in to-day. Sails to-morrow sure."
It made little difference to me, and I would be glad to have a night's
sleep ashore after the rice-steamer. However, it would be wise to have
the exact sailing-time of the Kut Sang, so I rang up the steamship office
and asked, not wishing to run the risk of getting to the mole and finding
the steamer gone.
"She sails this afternoon at five, as noted on the board," was the
startling response to my query. I was so taken aback for a second that I
didn't know what to think or say. I remarked into the telephone that
somebody in the steamship office must take me for a fool, and that I
did not consider such things jokes.
No, they had not telephoned me the sailing was delayed; couldn't say
who had; certainly no one in the steamship office could think of doing

such a thing, which