l! Mutton and sandwiches, cake and whisky. Is this your usual feed,
Charley, may I ask? No wonder you look dyspeptic.' 'We're out of
pheasant,' I said. He looks at me and bursts out laughing. 'Charley, my
boy, I wonder how much you really will stand.' 'I'll tell you
presently,' I said, and went on smoking.

"Dyspepsia didn't scare him much. He went across my dumb-waiter, eating
every crumb, drinking every drop of the whisky and soda. Then he took a
cigar, snipped it in his big teeth and held out his hand for a match.
And then--he was sitting on my red plush settee, while I was in my arm
chair--he swung his feet up and lay back on the cushions, puffing the
smoke up in great clouds. 'Quite a reader!' he says, waving his cigar
towards my book-case. 'You were always a chap for worming.'

"'Frank,' I said, 'we've a long account to settle. Somehow or other
we've always been antagonistic. Why?'

"'How do you mean?' he says.

"'What have I done to you, that you should be always turning up and
queering my pitch?'

"'Oh, you mean Gladys,' he says laughing. 'No,' I said, 'I don't mean
Gladys particularly. I mean everything. Every time we come together you
do me a bad turn.'

"'How can I do you a bad turn now?' he inquires blandly. 'I don't know,'
I said, 'I don't know.'

"'I can tell you how you can do me a good turn, old man,' he says,
sitting up. 'Can't you get me a billet, here? Just to get home, you
know.'

"'We don't go home,' I said. 'We're on a time charter between here and
Genoa.' 'Oh, that'll do,' he says. 'I can go home from there easily
enough.'

"'I can give you a fireman's job,' I said, 'or a greaser's.'

"'A greaser's!' he says, his eyes sparkling at me. 'You say that to me,
Charley----' 'Easy,' I said, 'if you shout you'll have some one in here.
All the jobs I can give you are inferior. You have no rating on a ship,
Frank. I've had to work five years or more for this job. Your automobile
engineering is no use to you here, you know. You're down and out, you
said just now.'

"'Yes,' he said, 'that's a fact. I must be humble and take anything.
Anything, Charley.' 'Well,' I said, 'I can give you a light easy job as
steward here for the engineers. If you hustle round you can pick it up.
You'll have to swallow all your pride, you know, as I did when I came to
sea. You'll have to make beds, tidy up the rooms, lay the table, wash
dishes. Will you do it? The last one has just deserted. I was going to
get one t