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"Not beyond the hundred pound in the Saltypool. . . . Didn't I make that plain?" "No, you didn't." 'Bias laid down his pipe. "Are you standin' there and tellin' me that your papers are all right and safe?" "To be sure they are. Rogers handed 'em over to me, and I took 'em home and locked 'em in my strong-box it may be four months ago."
"You're in a tarnation hurry every way, 'twould seem. Who told you as I'd put that hundred into any vessel below Plimsoll mark?" "I thought you hinted as much." "Then you thought a long sight too fast. If you must know, your money's in the old Saltypool, and old as she is, that steamship might be my child, the way I watch over her." "The Saltypool!
He's been speckilatin' for years: I always looked for this to be the end, and when they told me the Saltypool wasn't insured, why, I drew my conclusions. As I was sayin' to Cap'n Hunken just now " "Eh? . . . Where is he?" "Who?" "'Bias Hunken. You said as you been speakin' with him " "Ay, to be sure, over his garden wall.
She gave me the like. . . . You handed the money over to Rogers, and close on fifteen per cent he was makin' on it in the Saltypool." "Who who told you?" "Wait! I did the like. . . . Seven pounds eight-and-four was my dividend, whatever yours may have been eh?
"Well, to start with, you don't suppose Mr Rogers got his stroke for nothin'? 'Twas the news about the Saltypool that bowled him out: an' between you an' me, in a few days there's goin' to be a dreadful mess. He always was a speckilator. The more money he made and he made a lot, back-along the more he'd risk it: and the last year or two his luck has been cruel.
"Good evenin'!" "Good evenin'," responded 'Bias in a tone none too hospitable. "You don't mind my havin' a word with you?" "Not if you'll make it short." "I've just come from Philp. He's been tellin' you about the Saltypool, it seems." "Well?" "She was uninsured." "And on top o' that, the fools overloaded her." "And 'tis a serious thing for Rogers."
Indeed Mr Philp, big with his news and important, had somehow contrived to overawe everyone on deck. "The news is," he announced slowly, "that the Saltypool has gone down, within fifty miles of Philadelphia. Crew saved in the boats. Cable reached Mr Rogers at eleven o'clock, and" he paused impressively, "there and then Rogers had a second stroke. Point o' death, they say."
Two hundred there were, and all in bank notes: but only one hundred belonged to him and I only found that out the other day, when he heard that Mr Rogers had put it into the Saltypool, and there was a row. As for the other Lawks, you don't tell me 'twas yours!" exclaimed Fancy, catching at the sudden surmise written on Cai's face. "Why not? . . . If he treated 'Bias that way?
In the end, as he had to tell me for I did all his writin', except when he employed Peter Benny, he rode to one anchor, and that was the Saltypool. He ran her uninsured." "Uninsured?" Cai gave a low whistle. "But all the same," said he, "an' sorry as I am for Rogers, I don't see how that affects " "I'm a-breakin' it gently," said Fancy, not without a small air of importance.
I looked over and saw him weedin' among the rose-bushes, an' pulled up to give him the time o' day." "You didn' tell him about the Saltypool?" "As it happens, that's just what I did. He'd heard she was lost, but he'd no notion Rogers hadn't taken out an insurance on her, and he seemed quite fetched aback over it." "The devil!" "I'm sorry you feel like that about him.
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