The Vultures | Page 9

spoken, and who
sat down last, was obviously a sailor. His face was burned a deep
brown, and was mostly hidden by a closely cut beard. He had the slow
ways of a Northerner, the abashed manner of a merchant skipper on
shore. The mark of the other element was so plainly written upon him
that Captain Cable looked at him hard and then nodded. Without being
invited to do so they sat next to each other at one side of the table, and
faced the three landsmen. Again Captain Cable spoke first.
"Provided it's nothing underhand," he said, "I'm ready and willing.
Or'nary risks of the sea, Queen's enemies, act o' God--them's my risks!
I am uninsured. Ship's my own. I don't mind explosives--"
"There are explosives," admitted the banker.
"Then they must be honest explosives, or they don't go below my
hatches. Explosives that's to blow a man up honest, before his face."
"There are cartridges," said the young man who had shaken hands.
"That'll do," said the masterful sailor. And pointing a thick finger
towards the banker, added, "Now, mister," and sat back in his chair.
"It is a very simple matter," explained the banker, in a thick, suave
voice. "We have a cargo--a greater part of it weight, though there is
some measurement--a few cases of light goods, clothing and such. You
will load in the river, and all will be sent to you in lighters. There is
nothing heavy, nothing large. There is also no insurance, you
understand. What falls out of the slings and is lost overside is lost."
The banker paused for breath.
"I understand," said Captain Cable. "It's the same with me and my ship.
There is no insurance, no tricking underwriters into unusual risks. It's
neck or nothing with me."
And he looked hard at the breathless banker, with whom it was, in this
respect, nothing.
"I understand right enough," he added, with an affable nod to the three
foreigners.

"You will sail from London with a full general cargo for Malmo or
Stockholm, or somewhere where officials are not wide-awake. You
meet in the North Sea, at a point to be fixed between yourselves, the
/Olaf/, Captain Petersen--sitting by your side."
Captain Cable turned and gravely shook hands with Captain Petersen.
"Thought you was a seafaring man," he said. And Captain Petersen
replied that he was "Vair pleased."
"The cargo is to be transshipped at sea, out of sight of land or lightship.
But that we can safely leave to you, Captain Cable."
"I don't deny," replied the mariner, who was measuring Captain
Petersen out of the corner of his eye, "that I have been there before."
"You can then go up the Baltic in ballast to some small port--just a
sawmill, at the head of a fjord--where I shall have a cargo of timber
waiting for you to bring back to London. When can you begin loading,
captain?"
"To-morrow," replied the captain. "Ship's lying in the river now, and if
these gentlemen would like to see her, she's as handy a--"
"No, I do not think we shall have time for that!" put in the banker,
hastily. "And now we must leave you and Captain Petersen to settle
your meeting-place. You have your charts?"
By way of response the captain produced from his pocket sundry folded
papers, which he laid tenderly on the table. For the last ten years he had
been postponing the necessity of buying new charts of certain sections
of the North Sea. He looked round at the high walls and the
overhanging trees.
"Hope the wind don't come blustering in here much," he said,
apprehensively, as he unfolded the ragged papers with great caution.
The fair-haired young man drew forward his chair, and Cable, seeing
the action, looked at him sharply.
"Seafaring man?" he inquired, with a weight of doubt and distrust in his
voice.
"Not by profession, only for fun."
"Fun? Man and boy, I've used the sea forty years, and I haven't yet
found out where the fun comes in!"
"This gentleman," explained the banker, "his Ex--Mr.--" He paused,
and looked inquiringly at the white-haired gentleman.
"Mr. Martin."

"Mr. Martin will be on board the /Olaf/ when you meet Captain
Petersen in the North Sea. He will act as interpreter. You remember
that Captain Petersen speaks no English, and you do not know his
language. The two crews, I understand, will be similarly placed.
Captain Peterson undertakes to have no one on board speaking English.
And your crew, my fren'?"
"My crew comes from Sun'land. Men that only speak English, and
precious little of that," replied Captain Cable.
He had his finger on the chart, but paused and looked up, fixing his
bright glance on the face of the white-haired gentleman.
"There's one thing--I'm a