"Conrad, Josph - Youth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Conrad Joseph)

ber's or tobacconist's they asked familiarly, 'Do you
think you will ever get to Bankok?' Meantime the
owner, the underwriters, and the charterers squabbled
amongst themselves in London, and our pay went on.
. . . Pass the bottle.

"It was horrid. Morally it was worse than pumping
for life. It seemed as though we had been forgotten by
the world, belonged to nobody, would get nowhere; it
seemed that, as if bewitched, we would have to live for
ever and ever in that inner harbor, a derision and a by-
word to generations of long-shore loafers and dishonest
boatmen. I obtained three months' pay and a five days'
leave, and made a rush for London. It took me a day
to get there and pretty well another to come back--but
three months' pay went all the same. I don't know what
I did with it. I went to a music-hall, I believe, lunched,
dined, and supped in a swell place in Regent Street, and
was back to time, with nothing but a complete set of
Byron's works and a new railway rug to show for three
months' work. The boatman who pulled me off to the
ship said: 'Hallo! I thought you had left the old thing.
SHE will never get to Bankok.' 'That's all YOU know
about it,' I said scornfully--but I didn't like that proph-
ecy at all.

"Suddenly a man, some kind of agent to somebody,
appeared with full powers. He had grog blossoms all
over his face, an indomitable energy, and was a jolly
soul. We leaped into life again. A hulk came along-
side, took our cargo, and then we went into dry dock to
get our copper stripped. No wonder she leaked. The
poor thing, strained beyond endurance by the gale, had,
as if in disgust, spat out all the oakum of her lower
seams. She was recalked, new coppered, and made as
tight as a bottle. We went back to the hulk and re-
shipped our cargo.

"Then on a fine moonlight night, all the rats left the
ship.

"We had been infested with them. They had destroyed
our sails, consumed more stores than the crew, affably
shared our beds and our dangers, and now, when the
ship was made seaworthy, concluded to clear out. I
called Mahon to enjoy the spectacle. Rat after rat ap-
peared on our rail, took a last look over his shoulder,
and leaped with a hollow thud into the empty hulk.
We tried to count them, but soon lost the tale. Mahon
said: 'Well, well! don't talk to me about the intelligence