"Boatswain he was in the Kut Sang, bound out to-day for Hong-Kong," said the mariner.
"Jolly long road to Hong-Kong for him now," said another.
"Who cut him?" demanded the policeman. "Didn't you see how this happened?
Are you all deaf and dumb? You, there in the apron! Who did this?"
"You can search me," said the bartender. "He had a couple of drinks and was going out when somebody slipped a knife in him. I was at the other end of the bar—never saw a thing until this one here lets out a yell and goes down. Somebody cut and run through the door."
"I see him! I see him!" cried a boy in kilts who had a hoop, and we all turned, expecting the murderer to be pointed out to us; but the boy meant that he had seen the man running away and all that he knew was that he had worn a "funny hat," and he could tell nothing else.
"A little chap it was," volunteered a cockney.
"What's that?" asked the policeman. "Speak up—nobody here going to bite you, my man! Did you see him? What did he look like?"
"I didn't see him do no cuttin', if that's what you mean, officer. I didn't see no knife-play, and ye couldn't hang a man on what I see, and—"
"What did you see?" said the policeman, with a show of asperity. "Never mind what we can do with it. What did you see?"
"Small chap, in a white navy-cap, and 'air red as the sun in the Gulf of
H'annam."