“Was he lost?”
“Yes.”
“He’s dead—sure?”
“Yes—O ma foi, yes. I left him with the crabs eating him.”
Stock had been one of Pierre Sagesse’s many victims. Stock was not owner of the Anne Martin, only master, but he had once owned a ship in the West India trade, had become involved in Sagesse’s net and ruined. The hatred of hell would scarcely express in words the hatred of Simon Stock for Pierre Sagesse. No wonder, then, that he did what he did on the news of Pierre Sagesse’s death and the statement about the crabs, and what he did was this. Flung up his chin till his scrawny and vulturous neck was sunlit from hyoid bone to sternum, clicked his fingers like castanets, laughed horribly, called the hands aft, ordered Skinner to serve them out a tot of rum all round and, then, taking Gaspard by the arm, led him down the companion-way to the dismal place that went by the name of the saloon.
He opened the door of a dog hole that had served once for a third officer’s cabin and Diego, who had followed, translating, he said:
“You can berth here and for nothing, the news that Peer Sagesse is in hell is all the payment I want. Make yourself at home, sonny, call for what you want, drinks or smokes and dinner’s at eight bells.”
Then he turned on his heel and went on deck, followed by Diego, leaving Gaspard to settle into his new quarters. A palace would not have pleased him better at the moment, than this dingy place. He had dreaded being berthed in the fo’cs’le, to have carried a fortune of many thousands of pounds in gems into such a place, to live in that mixed community for several weeks and to keep the fortune hidden would have been a difficult task indeed.
Here it was perfectly simple, there was an upper and a lower bunk, each with a mattress, there was no steward, so Diego had told him, so there would be no one fussing about making beds. He took the bundle from his pocket and placed it in a corner of the upper bunk under the mattress, as he did so he felt the absolute physical pleasure that comes when the body is relieved of a heavy load. He could move now freely and having closed the door of the cabin, he came on deck.