“Well, I had a bit of a liver, and I disliked being called barman.
“ ‘Several bottles of poison,’ I answered, ‘and the hell of a temper.’
“The second one laughed, and after a moment or two the other joined in.
“ ‘I don’t wonder at the latter commodity,’ he said. ‘This is a ghastly hole.’
“ ‘I wouldn’t deny it,’ I answered. ‘What, if I may ask, has brought you here?’
“ ‘Oh, we’ve had a small breakdown, and the skipper came in here to repair it. We’ve just come ashore to have a look round.’
“I glanced through the window, and noticed for the first time that a steam yacht was lying off the shore. She was a real beauty—looked about a thousand tons—and I gave a sigh of envy.
“ ‘You’re not in want of a barman, by any chance, are you?’ I said. ‘If so, I’ll swim out and chance the sharks.’
“ ‘ ’Fraid we’ve got everything in that line,’ he answered. ‘But select the least deadly of your poisons, and join us.’
“And it was as I was pulling down the gin and vermouth that Jimmy Mainwaring came into the bar. He got about half-way across the floor, and then he stopped dead in his tracks. And I guess during the next two seconds you could have heard a pin drop.