The courier., 1901-03-23
THE COURIER.

negotiations. saying: "Men OF the ship
last night was drunk. and this morn
ing know that behaved unseemly to
some one or another Of you. Who was
that man. that / may meet him face TO
face and say that was drunk"
Psmbe measured the distance to Nur-
keed's naked breast. II he sprang at
him he might be tripped up, and blind
blow at the chest Sometimes only means
cash on the breast bone. Ribs are
difficult to thrust between unless the
subject be asleep. So he said nothing;
nor did the other Lascars. Their faces
Immediately dropped all expression, as is
the custom OF the Oriental when there
is killing on the carpet or any chance Of
trouble. Nurkeed looked long at the
white oye-balls. He was only an Afri.
can and could not read characters. A
big siCh-almost groan-broke from
him, and he went hack to the furnace.
The Lascars took up the conversation
where he had interrupted it. They
talked OF the best methods Of cooking
rice. Nurkeed suffered considerably
from lack Of fresh air during the run to
Bombay. he only came on deck to
breathe when all the world was about;
and even then a heavy block once
dropped from derrick within foot of
his head. and an apparently firm lashed
grating on which he set his foot began
to turn over with the intention OF drop
ping him on the cased cargo fifteen feet
below; and one insupportable night the
sheath knife dropped from the fo'c's'ie,
and this time it drew blood. So Nur-
keed made complaint, and, when the
Saarbruck reached Bombay, fled and
buried himself among 800, 200 people,
and did not sign articles till the ship had
been a month gone from the port.
Pambe waited too; but his Bombay wife
grew clamorous, and he was forced to
sign in the Spicheren to Houg Kong.
because he realized that all play and no
work gives Jack ragged shirt. In the
toggy China sea he thought a great
deal about Nurkeed, and, when Elsass-
Lothringen steamers lay in port with
the Spicheren. inquired after him and
found he gone to England via the
Cape, on the Gravelotte. Pambe came
to England on The Worth. The Spich-
eren met her by the More Light. Nur-
keed was going out with Spicheren to
the Calicut coast.
want to find a friend. my trap
mouthed coal-scuttle?" said a gentle.
man in the mercantile service. Moth
ing easier. Wait at the Nyanza docks
till he comes. Everyone comes to the
Nyanza docks. Wait, you poor heather"
The gentleman spoke the truth. There
are three great doors in the world where.
il you stand long enough, you shall meet
any one you wish. The head of the
Suez canal is one, but there death comes
also; Charing Cross station is the Sec
ond-for inland work; and the Nyanza
docks is the third. At each of these
places are men and women looking
eternally for those " ho will surely come.
So Pambe waited at the docks. Time
was no object to him; and the wives
could wait. as he did, from day to day,
week to week, and month to month, by
the Blue Diamond tunnels. the Red Dot
smoke stacks, the Yellow Streaks, and
the namelees dingy gypsies of the sea
that loaded and unloaded. iostled,
whistled and roared in the everlasting
fog. When money failed kind gentle
man told Pambe to become a Christian;
and Pambe become one with great speed,