the packing-case.
“You have plenty of room,” he told me. “Sure you wouldn’t like me to go instead?”
I climbed into the case.
“You come with Mike at nine. If there are more than one with Sherrill’s boat, and you don’t think you can handle them, you’ll have to come alone. They’ll think you’re me, anyway. If you hear shooting on board, get Mifflin and a bunch of cops and come out fighting. Okay?”
Kerman nodded. He looked very worried.
“Mike, you come along with Dexter,” I went on. “If he fluffs his lines, knock him on the head and chuck him overboard.”
Scowling ferociously, Mike said he would do just that thing.
When Kerman fitted on the lid there was room enough in the case for me to sit down with my knees drawn up to my chin. Air came through the joints in the case. I reckoned it wouldn’t take me more than a minute or so to get out.
Kerman nailed down the lid, and between the three of them they got the case on to a sack barrow. The journey down to the water-front was pretty rough, and I collected a few bruises by the time they got the case into Dexter’s boat.
The outboard motor started up and chugged us out to sea. The wind, coming through the cracks in the case was sharp, and the motion of the boat as it slapped its way through the rollers bothered me.