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Ashore, behind the bar of a public house, my father saw three copper spikes ship's spikes." David Grief smiled quietly. "And now I can tell you the name of the coaling station and of the protectorate that came afterward," he said. "And of the three spikes?" Pankburn asked with equal quietness. "Go ahead, for they are in my possession now." "Certainly.
He saw a well-built young man of thirty, well-featured, well-dressed, and evidently, in the world's catalogue, a gentleman. But in the faint hint of slovenliness, in the shaking, eager hand that spilled the liquor, and in the nervous, vacillating eyes, Grief read the unmistakable marks of the chronic alcoholic. After dinner he chanced upon Pankburn again.
A bucket of fresh water and a towel," Grief ordered, when he had finished. "Two buckets and two towels," he added, as he surveyed his own hands. "You're a pretty one," he said to Pankburn. "You've spoiled everything. I had the poison completely out of you. And now you are fairly reeking with it. We've got to begin all over again. Mr. Albright!
With a bow, Pankburn took the natural cup, threw his head back, and held it back till the shell was empty. He drank many of these nuts each day. The black steward, a New Hebrides boy sixty years of age, and his assistant, a Lark Islander of eleven, saw to it that he was continually supplied. Pankburn did not object to the hard work.
He peeped in at Ontong-Java Atoll, inspected his plantations on Ysabel, and purchased lands from the salt-water chiefs of northwestern Malaita. And all along this devious way he made a man of Aloysius Pankburn. That thirster, though he lived aft, was compelled to do the work of a common sailor.
"It's Sydney Heads for you," Grief said. "And then what?" "I'm coming back with you for that two hundred thousand," Pankburn answered. "In the meantime I'm going to build an island schooner. Also, I'm going to call those guardians of mine before the court to show cause why my father's money should not be turned over to me. Show cause? I'll show them cause why it should."
You know that pile of old chain on the beach at the boat-landing. Find the owner, buy it, and fetch it on board. There must be a hundred and fifty fathoms of it. Pankburn! To-morrow morning you start in pounding the rust off of it. When you've done that, you'll sandpaper it. Then you'll paint it. And nothing else will you do till that chain is as smooth as new." Aloysius Pankburn shook his head.
The rate of exchange was that established by Pankburn with One-Eye. Five sovereigns fetched a stick of tobacco; a hundred sovereigns, twenty sticks. Thus, a crafty-eyed cannibal would deposit on the table a thousand dollars in gold, and go back over the rail, hugely-satisfied, with forty cents' worth of tobacco in his hand.
For at least five minutes he debated with himself, then licked his lips and surrendered. "If you promise to go, I'll tell you now." "Of course I'm willing to go. That's why I asked you. Name the island." Pankburn looked at the bottle. "I'll take that drink now, Captain." "No you won't. That drink was for you if you went ashore.
They caught her, between the Banks Group and the New Hebrides, hove to and flying distress signals. The captain had died the day before blackwater fever." "And the mate?" Pankburn challenged. "The mate had been killed a week earlier by the natives on one of the Banks, when they sent a boat in for water. There were no navigators left. The men were put to the torture.
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