e-stick? Oh,
here, behind the Angostura bottle. And there's a fresh lime for you--got
a basket of them in this morning. Now you yarn whilst I play barmaid."

Mr. Sheriff tucked his feet on the arms of a long-chair and picked up a
fan. He sketched in the account of his embassage with humorous phrase.

The Hebrew had been liberal with his cocktail. He said himself that he
made them so beautifully that no one could resist a second; and so, with
a sigh of gusto, Sheriff gulped down number two and put the glass on the
floor. "No," he said; "no more. They're heavenly, I'll grant, but no
more. We shall want very clear heads for what's in front of us, and I'm
not going to fuddle mine for a commencement. I can tell you we have been
very nearly wrecked already. It was only by the skin of my teeth I
managed to collar Master Kettle. I only got him because I happened to
know something about him."

"Did you threaten to get him into trouble over it? What's he done?"

"Oh, nothing of that sort. But the man's got the pride of an emperor,
and it came to my knowledge he'd been making a living out of fishing in
the lagoon, and I worked on that. Look out of that window; it's a bit
glary with the sun full on, but do you see those rows of stakes the nets
are made fast on? Well, one of those belongs to Captain Owen Kettle, and
he works there after dark like a native, and dressed as one. You know
he's been so long living naked up in the bush that his hide's nearly
black, and he can speak all the nigger dialects. But I guessed he'd
never own up that he'd come so low as to compete with nigger fishermen,
and I fixed things so that he thought he'd have to tell white Lagos what
was his trade, or clear out of the colony one-time. It was quite a neat
bit of diplomacy."

"You have got a tongue in you," said White.

"When a man's as broke as I am, and as desperate, he does his best in
talk to get what he wants. But look here, Mr. White, now we've got
Kettle, I want to be off and see the thing over and finished as soon as
possible. It's the first time I've been hard enough pushed to meddle
with this kind of racket, and I can't say I find it so savory that I'm
keen on lingering over it."

The Jew shrugged his shoulders. "We are going for money," he said.
"Money is always hard to get, my boy, but it's nice, very nice, when
you have it."

Keen though Sheriff was to get this venture put to the trial, brimming
with energy though he might be, it was q