right time to do it, you'll say, after dark, as times
go and forecastle hands pan out in these days. Well, I had my reasons.
You can pick up good men in Hamburg if you go about it the right way.
A man comes up to me. Remembered me, he said; had sailed with me on a
voyage when we had machinery from the Tyne that was too big for us, and
we couldn't get the hatches on. We sailed after nightfall, I recollect,
with hatches off, and had the seas slopping in before the morning.
He remembered it, he said. And he asked me if it was true that I was
goin'--well, to the port I was bound for. And I said it was God's truth.
Then he told me a long yarn of two cases outshipped that was lying down
at the wharf. Transshipment goods on a through bill of lading. And the
bill of lading gone a missing in the post. A long story, all lies, as
I ought to have known at the time. He had a man with him--forwarding
agent, he called him. This chap couldn't speak English, but he spoke
German, and the other man translated as we went along. I couldn't
rightly see the other man's face. Little, dark man--with a queer, soft
voice, like a woman wheedlin'! Too d--d innocent, and I ought to have
known it. Don't you ever be wheedled by a woman, Mr. Cartoner. Got a
match?"

For the captain's cigar had gone out. But he felt quite at home, as he
always did--this unvarnished gentleman from the sea--and asked for what
he wanted.

"Well, to make a long yarn short, I took the cases. Two of them, size of
an orange-box. We were full, so I had them in the state-room alongside
of the locker where I lie down and get a bit of sleep when I feel I want
it. And they paid me well. It was government stuff, the soft-spoken man
said, and the freight would come out of the taxes and never be missed.
We went into heavy weather, and, as luck would have it, one of the cases
broke adrift and got smashed. I mended it myself, and had to open it.
Then I saw that it was explosives. Lie number one! It was packed in
wadding so as to save a jar. It was too small for shells. Besides,
no government sends loaded shells about, 'cepting in war time. At the
moment I did not think much about it. It was heavy weather, and I had a
new crew. There were other things to think about. And, I tell you, when
I got to port, a chap with gold lace on him came aboard and took the
stuff away."

Cartoner's attention was aroused now. There was something in this story,
after all. There might be everything in it