FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133  
134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   >>  
uses have the front ground floor divided into barroom and clothing-store, while in the rear is the dining-room and upstairs the bedrooms, each with as many beds as there is room for. Thus, a man may be housed, fed, clothed, drugged, and shipped from the same address. The remedy for this has no place in this story. A boarding-master, or crimp, without the machinery, becomes a shipping-master, a go-between between the skipper and the boarding-master, whose income is the blood-money paid by skippers for men. Murphy, strolling along South Street a few days later, saw a new sign over a doorway--Timothy Hennesey, Shipping-Master. He ascended the wooden stairs, and in a dingy room with one desk and chair found his former aid. "Well, what the hill is this, Hennesey--tryin' to take the brid out of honest min's mouths?" "I've me livin' to make, Murphy, an' I'm a-doin' it. I got the crew of the _Albatross_." "An' what did ye do wid 'em?" "Put 'em wid Stillman, over beyant. Ye might ha' had 'em had ye played fair." Stillman was Murphy's most important rival, and the news did not cheer him. He glared darkly at Hennesey. "An' I've got the shippin' o' Williams's new crew whin he sails," continued Hennesey, "an' I'll not go to you for 'em, Murphy." "Ye'll not?" responded Murphy, luridly. "After all the wark I've given ye." "I'll not. I told ye I'd git yer business, an' I'll do it." Murphy's fist shot out and Hennesey went down. Arising with bleeding nose, he shook his small fist at his chuckling assailant passing sidewise out of his door. "I'll not forgit thot, John Murphy," he spluttered. "I don't want ye to. Remember it while ye live; an' there's more where thot cum from, too, ye scab." At a meeting of the brotherhood that evening, Murphy posted the name of Timothy Hennesey, scab, and Captain Williams, outlaw; then, somewhat easier in his mind, took account of the immediate business situation. It was bad; he had three cash boarders, of no use when their money was gone, as they signed in coasters, and there was but one ship in port, the _Albatross_, and none expected for a fortnight. So, leaving orders with his wife to watch the cash register in the bar, and to evict the boarders when they asked for trust, he took the train for Chicago, where lived a prosperous brother, for whom he had a sincere regard, and to whom he owed a long-promised visit. Brother Mike welcomed him, and under the softening influen
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133  
134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   >>  



Top keywords:
Murphy
 

Hennesey

 

master

 
boarders
 

Timothy

 

Stillman

 

business

 

Williams

 

Albatross

 

boarding


prosperous

 
sincere
 

brother

 
regard
 
passing
 

sidewise

 

assailant

 

chuckling

 

Chicago

 

Arising


welcomed

 

softening

 

luridly

 

influen

 

register

 
Brother
 

promised

 

bleeding

 

orders

 

Captain


outlaw

 

responded

 
evening
 

posted

 

coasters

 

easier

 

signed

 

account

 

situation

 

fortnight


spluttered
 
forgit
 

leaving

 

Remember

 

meeting

 
brotherhood
 

expected

 
remedy
 
shipped
 

address