"Alexander Green - The ships in Liss" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Alexander)

III


At the time our story begins four people were sitting at a table on the
top floor of the hotel Heaven Help Us before a window with a picturesque
view of Liss's harbour. They were Captain Duke, a quite corpulent and
effusive individual; Captain Robert Estamp; Captain Renior; and a
captain better known by the nickname "I know you", because he greeted
everybody, even strangers, with just this phrase if the person evinced an
inclination to go on a spree. His name, though, was Chinchar.
Such a glittering, even aristocratic company could not, naturally
enough, be gathered round an empty table. On it were standing various
festive bottles brought out by the proprietor of the hotel on special
occasions-namely those like the present one, when captains, who generally
had no love lost for each other for reasons of professional swashbuckling,
got together to do some heavy drinking. Estamp was an elderly, very pale,
grey-eyed, taciturn man with reddish eyebrows; Renior, with long black
hair and bulging eyes, looked like a disguised monk; Chinchar, a one-eyed,
agile old man with black teeth and a mournful blue eye, was notable for
his scathing tongue.
The inn was full; people were singing at one table and arguing noisily at
another; from time to time some merry-maker, who had reached the stage
of complete oblivion, would head for the exit knocking over the chairs in
his path; the plates and dishes were rattling; and amidst this noise Duke
twice caught the name "Bitt-Boy". Evidently someone was recalling this
glorious person. The name came up apropos, for a difficult situation was
under discussion.
"Now with Bitt-Boy," Duke exclaimed, "I wouldn't be afraid of an entire
squadron! But he's not around. My dear captains, I'm loaded with vile
explosives тАФ a terrible thing! That is, not I, but the 'Marianne. However,
the Marianne is I and I'm the Marianne, therefore I'm loaded. It's an irony
of fate: I-with a cargo of grapeshot and powder! Let God be my witness,
my dear captains," Duke continued in a gloomily animated voice, "after
that knock-out dish they treated me to in the commissariat I would have
even agreed to carry seltzer and soda water!"
"A privateer showed up again the day before yesterday," put in Estamp.
"I don't know what he's looking for in these waters," said Chinchar, "but
one's afraid to weigh anchor."
"What's burdening you now?" asked Renior.
"Utter rubbish, captain. I'm transporting tinware and perfume. But I've
been promised a bonus!"
Chinchar was lying, however. He was "burdened" not with tinplate, but
with an insurance policy, and was seeking a suitable time and place to
sink his Hermit for a large sum. Such dirty tricks are no rarity, although
they require great circumspection. The privateer was bad news; Chinchar
had received information that his insurance company was on the brink of
ruin, and so he had to hurry.
"I know what that pirate's looking for," declared Duke. "Did you see the