The Narrow Corner Read Free

chuckle.
    When he smiled you saw that he had exquisite teeth. They were very white, small and of a perfect shape; they were so unexpected a grace in that sombre face, their beauty was so dazzling, that you were taken aback. His sulky smile had great sweetness.
    “You can laugh because you don’t know what it is,” said Captain Nichols. “I’m a martyr to it. Don’t sayI’m not careful what I eat. I’ve tried everything. Nothin’ does me any good. This beer now. Do you think I shan’t suffer for it? You know just as well as I do that I shall.”
    “Go on. Tell the doctor all about it,” said Blake.
    Captain Nichols asked nothing better. He proceeded to narrate the history of his malady. He described his symptoms with a scientific accuracy. There was not a revolting detail that he omitted to mention. He enumerated the doctors he had consulted and the patent remedies he had tried. Dr. Saunders listened in silence, an expression of sympathetic interest on his face, and occasionally nodded his head.
    “If there’s anyone as can do anythin’ for me it’s you, doc,” said the captain earnestly. “They don’t ’ave to tell me you’re clever, I can see that for meself.”
    “I can’t work miracles. You can’t expect anyone to do much in a minute for a chronic condition like yours.”
    “No, I don’t ask that, but you can prescribe for me, can’t you? There’s nothin’ I won’t try. What I’d like you to do is to make a thorough examination of me, see?”
    “How long are you staying here?”
    “Our time’s our own.”
    “But we’re pushing off as soon as we’ve got what we want,” said Blake.
    A quick look passed between the two men. Dr.Saunders noticed it. He did not know why he had an impression that there was something strange in it.
    “What made you put in here?” he asked.
    Fred Blake’s face once more grew sullen, and when the doctor put his question he threw him a glance. Dr. Saunders read suspicion in it and perhaps fear. He wondered. It was the captain who replied.
    “I’ve known Kim Ching donkey’s years. We wanted some stores, and we thought it wouldn’t do us any ’arm to fill up our tank.”
    “Are you trading?”
    “In a manner of speakin’. If anythin’ comes along we ain’t goin’ to miss a chance. Who would?”
    “What cargo are you carrying?”
    “A bit of everything.”
    Captain Nichols smiled genially, showing his decayed, discoloured teeth, and he looked strangely shifty and dishonest. It occurred to Dr. Saunders that perhaps they were smuggling opium.
    “You’re not going to Macassar by any chance?”
    “We might be.”
    “What’s that paper?” said Fred Blake suddenly, pointing to one that lay on the counter.
    “Oh, that’s three weeks old. We brought it down in the ship I came on.”
    “Have they got any Australian papers here?”
    “No.”
    Dr. Saunders chuckled at the notion.
    “Is there any Australian news in that paper?”
    “It’s Dutch. I don’t know Dutch. In any case, you’d have had later news than that on Thursday Island.”
    Blake frowned a little. The captain grinned craftily.
    “This ain’t exactly the hub of the universe, Fred,” he sniggered.
    “Don’t you ever have any English papers here at all?” asked Blake.
    “Now and then a stray copy of the Hong Kong paper finds its way here or a ‘Straits Times’, but they’re a month old.”
    “Don’t they ever get any news?”
    “Only what the Dutch ship brings.”
    “Haven’t they got a cable or a wireless?”
    “No.”
    “If a man wanted to keep out of the way of the police I should think he’d be pretty safe here,” said Captain Nichols.
    “For some time, anyway,” agreed the doctor.
    “Have another bottle of beer, doc?” asked Blake.
    “No, I don’t think I will. I’m going back to the rest-house. If you two fellows would like to come and dine there to-night, I can get you some sort of a meal.”
    He addressed himself to Blake because he had a feeling that