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Updated: May 21, 2025
Then she said it would serve me right if she went away in the schooner with the white men, and I would never see her again. And I said, "Oh, dear, but I'd feel sorry for the white man that got you!" Then she said she'd give all the gold Old Dibs had made her a present of to be back home in Tonga; and then I said I'd gladly add mine to hers.
I ain't sure as I 'adn't better stick to the road, and keep away from old 'ands like you, Jim." "Doin' well, eh?" said Jim. "Not so dusty," said Mr. Beale cautiously; "we mugger along some'ow. An' 'e's got so red in the face, and plumped out so, they'll soon say 'e doesn't want their dibs." "Starve 'im a bit," said the red-whiskered man cheerfully. Mr. Beale laughed. Then he spat thoughtfully.
It was a jumpy thing to enter that darkened room, with the feeling you couldn't shake off that Old Dibs was peering in at us, and that every minute we'd hear his footstep, everything laid out just as he had last touched them, and almost warm, even to his slippers and his collar and the old hat against the wall.
But the lights were just as brilliant outside, the pavements as thronged as the carpeted promenade, its faces almost as thickly painted as those of the lady who wished her "regards" given to Leicester Square, or the gentleman who had assured us that nobody wanted to fight England, because England had the "dibs." Beatrice was now in feverishly high spirits.
Then Bob, by the mercy of the Lord, like Peter, found them guineas in the corner of his swab some puts it round their necks, and some into their pockets; I never heard of such a thing till chaps run soft and watery and so we come to this here place to change the air and the breeding, and spin this yarn to your honor's honor, as hath a liberal twist in it; and then to take orders, and draw rations, and any 'rears of pay fallen due, after all dibs gone in your service; and for Bob to tip a stave in the Minister."
"Oh, I don't mind shortening up a bit," said Old Dibs, laying down to show how easy it might be done, and eager to be accommodating. "And I'd propose chicken wire instead of net," says I to Tom, noticing how the old gentleman bulked outboard. "He's putting a strain on that worse nor a live shark."
Crossing Ludgate Circus, as we fought our way to the steps of an omnibus, was a band of youths linked arm in arm, and all apparently intoxicated. There must have been forty in a line. As they advanced, cutting all sorts of curious capers, they bawled, in something like unison, the melancholy music-hall refrain: "They'll never go for England, because England's got the dibs."
Phelps, taking a photograph out of his pocket, while four pairs of eyes settled on Tom and me like gimlets, and there was the kind of pause when pins drop. "A very fine-appearing old gentleman," says I, starting in spite of myself when I saw it was a picture of Old Dibs. "Give us a squint, Bill," says Tom, taking it out of my hands as bold as brass.
"Yes, sir, if you please, presumin' it's a safe bank." "Safe as houses." "'Cos it's a tolerable big amount," settling himself into his boots in the manner of a millionaire. "Lot of money about four hundred pounds! But you can trust me to see to it all right." "No fear, sir," replied Joseph grandly. "I'm quite content, I'm sure, that you should have the fingering o' the dibs."
I wished him happy dreams, and come down, all three of us setting out for home with the truck and the gear, my wife in a tantrum at our having threatened to desert Old Dibs when he acted so cowardly. Tom made it worse by saying the Kanakas were losing all respeck for whites, and if he was married to a Tongan, and was spoken to like that, he'd quit by gum, that's what he'd do!
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