"Sh-h-h!" rumbled Valvick, and made a mighty gesture, He blinked round. "Ay dunno what he done, but he got to
The knock was repeated…
"Dere iss no cupboard — dere iss no — Coroosh! Ay got HI Hi hass got to put on de false whiskers. Come here. Come here, ay tell you, or ay bust you one! You iss cuckoo! Don't argu wit' me," he boomed as a spluttering Warren was hauled across the cabin. "Here iss a pair of fid whiskers wit' de wires for de ears. Here iss a wig. Mr. Morgan, get a robe or something out of dat locker… "
"Hut why, I ask you?" demanded Warren. He spoke with a difficult attempt at dignity from behind a threatening bush of red whiskers with curled ends, and a black wig with long curls which Valvick had jammed over one eye. When he began to shake one arm and declaim, Morgan wrapped round him a scarlet bejewelled robe. "I've got proof! I can prove Kyle is a crook. All I've got to do is to || In Whistler and say, 'Look here, you old porpoise—' "
"Shut up!" hissed Valvick, clapping a hand over the whiskers. "Now. We iss ready. Open dat door… "
They stared tensely, but the sight, as Morgan opened (Hi door, was not very alarming. Under ordinary circumstances they would have deduced that their visitor was, if Anything, a shade more nervous than they. A stocky A.B. In dungarees and a striped jersey was pulling at his forelock, shifting his feet, and flashing the whites of his eyes, Before anybody could speak, the A.B. burst out rapidly, In n hoarse confidential voice.
"Miss! Wot we want to 'ave clearly understood, my mates and me, which I was delegyted 'ere to sy, is that my mates and me is in naow wy responsible. Miss! Stryke me blind, so 'elp me, miss, if we're responsible! Like this. Not that we didn't feel like it, wot with 'im ordering us abaht like we wos dirt, and 'im only a ruddy Turk, yer see — but it's abaht that bloke Abdul, miss—"
"Abdul?" said Peggy. "Abdul! Where is he?"
"Right 'ere, miss, yer see. I've got 'im outside, miss. In a wheelbarrow, miss."
"In a wheelbarrow?"