Slyne\'s nostrils curled as he observed the dirty and dishevelled aspect of the Olive Branch, lying idle in Genoa harbour alongside the coal-chutes where the day\'s work had not yet begun. He had grown extremely fastidious again within the very short space of time which had passed since he had last seen her.
There was no one visible about her littered decks except the watchman on duty, whose sole salute to him as he stepped carefully up the insecure gangplank was a sullen scowl.
But that might have been deemed quite a hearty welcome in contrast with his reception by Captain Dove.
Captain Dove was, in point of fact, furious when he opened his little, red-rimmed eyes and became aware of his former friend\'s intrusion upon his privacy. Sitting up in his frowsy bunk, with the blankets huddled about him, looking ludicrously like an incensed gorilla, he raged and swore at his gratuitous visitor until his voice gave out.
Slyne, forgetful, in his new enthusiasm, of the terms on which they had parted, was at first somewhat taken aback by that outburst; but only at first. And his sanguine anticipations enabled him to endure it unmoved. It also gave him time to collect his ideas. He could see that his errand was not going to prove quite so easy as he had expected, and that he must play his new cards with discrimination. As soon as the evil old man in the bunk had exhausted himself in invective, Slyne spoke, smooth and cuttingly.
"I came back to do you a good turn. But—if that\'s how you\'re going to take it, you foul-mouthed old rapparee! I\'ll save my breath and be off again. What th\' deuce d\'ye mean by shouting at me as if I were a drunken deck-hand! Speak to me above a whisper now—and you\'ll see what\'ll happen to you. That\'s the police-boat pulling past."
The opportune plash of oars had suggested to him that plausible threat. Captain Dove, listening intently, crouched back against the bulkhead, his blinking, hot, suspicious eyes on Slyne\'s. The boat passed on. But he had found time to observe that Slyne was in evening dress, with an expensive fur coat to keep the cold out. And Slyne\'s cool contempt for his ill-temper would seem to have impressed him no less than Slyne\'s air of solid prosperity.
He himself, it appeared, had had care and adversity for his companions ever since parting with his former friend. His chief aim in calling at Genoa had been cheap coal and cheaper repairs, and he thought that he was less likely to be recognised there than elsewhere in the Mediterranean. But coal, he had found, had risen to a ruinous price in consequence of a recent strike among the miners in England; and for even the most trifling repairs he would have to wait at least a week, because the dock-yard people were already working over-time to make way for a man-of-war. Credit of any sort was not to be had. His portage-bill bade fair to swamp his insufficient cash resources—even although three of his now scanty crew had already deserted. And who could foretell what might happen to him if they should get wagging their tongues too freely in some wine-shop ashore! While, as if for climax, the Customs\' authorities had been displaying a most suspicious interest in him and his ship. Under such circumstances, even a saint might have been pardoned, as he pointed out, for showing a temper something short of seraphic.
"And you\'ve been doing me good turns—by your way of it—for some time past," he continued, in a stifled, vehement whisper lest his voice should still reach the receding boat. "Though—" He waved a claw-like hand about him, words again failing him to describe adequately his sufferings in consequence, as who should say, "See the result for yourself."
Slyne sat down on the sofa opposite him, not even condescending to glance, in response to that invitation, round the squalid, poverty-stricken little cabin. "Never mind about some time past," he advised, more pacifically. "You\'ll never get rich quick yesterday. To-day\'s when I\'m going to make my pile. And I meant to let you in—"
"To another hole," Captain Dove concluded sceptically. "I only wish you\'d show me some sure way out of the one I\'m in."
Slyne looked his annoyance at that further interruption, and made as if to rise, but did no more than draw his gold cigarette-case from its pocket. He knew that Captain Dove was merely trying to aggravate him, and it would not have been politic to stray from the matter in hand. He lighted a cigarette at his leisure and waited for what should come next. He had changed his mind as to taking the old man fully into his confidence. He thought he could see his way to get all he wanted for a very great deal less than that might have cost him.
"Want a drink?" Captain Dove demanded, no doubt with the idea that a dose of spirit might serve to stir up his visitor\'s temper, and looked surprised at Slyne\'s curt head-shake, still more surprised over his response.
"I can\'t afford to drink at all hours of the day and night now," said Slyne austerely. "That sort of thing was all very well at sea, but—The business I have in hand isn\'t of the sort that can be carried out on raw brandy. And you\'ll have to taper off too, if you want to come in."
"Strike—me—sky-blue!" exclaimed the old man, and Slyne held up a reproving hand.
"I can do with a good deal less of your bad language into the bargain," he mentioned coldly, "if you don\'t mind. In short, I want you to understand from the start that you\'ve got to behave as if you were a reasonable human being and not a dangerous lunatic, or—I\'ll leave you to rot, in the hole you\'ve got yourself into."
Captain Dove, scarcely able to credit the evidence of his own ears but, none the less, apparently, thinking hard, darted a very ugly glance at him, and noticed the diamonds in his shirt-front. Under the strongest temptation to call in a couple of deck-hands and have him thrown off the ship, Captain Dove obviously paused to consider whether those could be of any intrinsic value. He was, of course, satisfied that he knew exactly how much—or, rather, how little money Slyne had had in his pockets when he went ashore. And, if Slyne had already, within four and twenty hours, been able to turn that over at a profit sufficient to provide himself with a fur coat and diamonds, it might perhaps pay Captain Dove to hear what he had to propose. Slyne, reading all the old man\'s thoughts, could see that he had decided to temporise.
"But, I can do with a damn sight less of your back-chat!" rumbled Captain Dove, not to be put down without protest. "If you\'ve come back on board to offer me a founder\'s share in any new gold-brick factory, fire straight ahead—and be short about it. It\'ll save time, too, if you\'ll take it from me again that I\'d rather have your room than your company."
And at that, Slyne made his next considered move.
"All right," he said in a tone of the most utter contempt. "That\'s enough. I\'m off.
"I came back to do you a good turn—although few men, in my position, would ever have looked near you again," he paused in the doorway to remark acridly. "But I can see now what\'s the matter with you—and I only wish I had noticed it in time to save myself all it has cost me. It\'s senile decay you\'re suffering from. You\'re far too old to be of any more use—even to yourself. You\'re in your dotage, and you\'ll soon be in an asylum—for pauper lunatics!"
He had evidently lost his own temper at last. And Captain Dove was visibly pleased with that result of his tactics; as a rule he was better able to cope with Slyne on a basis of mutual abuse, heated on both sides; Slyne cool and collected had him at a disadvantage.
"Now you\'re talking!" he retorted approvingly. "Say what\'s in your mind, straightforwardly, and we\'ll soon come to an understanding. Sit down again, you strutting peacock! and tell me what it is you want."
Slyne did not sit down again, however; to do so would scarcely have been dignified. He stayed in the doorway, silent, a thin stream of cigarette-smoke slowly filtering from his nostrils. His cold, calculating eyes were once more on Captain Dove\'s. And it was Captain Dove\'s would-be mocking glance that at length gave way.
"You offered to give me Sallie, if I paid you a hundred thousand dollars," said Slyne, judicially.
"To see you safely married to her," Captain Dove corrected him.
Slyne nodded, in grave assent.
"Well, I\'m going to hold you to your offer," said he. "The money\'s ready and waiting for you—just as soon as we can settle a few trifling formalities. I have Sallie\'s promise to marry me—"
"The devil you have!" said Captain Dove, not slow to seize opportunity either. "I thought I heard her say—"
Slyne\'s face darkened again. "And, if you\'ll come ashore with me now," he went on, controlling his temper, "I\'ll prove to you that your money is perfectly safe."
Captain Dove lay back in his bunk and laughed, most discordantly. He laughed till his red-rimmed eyes were adrip, while Slyne sat looking at him. He was still laughing when Slyne rose and, flicking the cigarette-end from between two nicotine-stained fingers, began to button his coat. He stopped laughing then, by calculated degrees.
"Sit down—sit down!" said he wheezily. "What\'s your hurry? You haven\'t told me yet what those few \'trifling formalities\' are. And how am I to know whether—"
But Slyne was already beyond the doorway, fumbling with a last button.
"If you believe I\'ve come here to talk simply for the sake of talking," said he with sombre magnificence, "I needn\'t waste any more breath on you. Good-bye."
Captain Dove jumped out of his bunk. He was clearly impressed, in spite of himself, by the other\'s indomitable assurance.
"Come back, you fool!" he called angrily. "Come back. I want to know—
"I\'ll go ashore with you," he shouted, raising his voice, since Slyne was already on his way to the gangway. But Slyne did not seem to hear.
"I\'ll take your offer—for Sallie," cried Captain Dove, in a slightly lower tone.
Slyne hesitated in his stride, stopped, and turned back into the alleyway which led to the saloon.
"What was that you said?" he demanded of Captain Dove.
"Come on inside," requested Captain Dove, more curtly.
"I don\'t believe I will," Slyne declared, inwardly elated over the winning of that somewhat risky move. "You don\'t deserve another chance. And, if I do give you another, you needn\'t suppo............