Jordan did so, but his face was a trifle anxious as he concluded. "I'm not quite sure if I can put it through. We've got to have a schooner, and it's where to get the last two or three thousand dollars that's worrying me. The banks don't seem to care about backing me."
Niven sat silent a moment or two. Then he said quietly, "Now, I've about that many dollars I'm getting very little for in the old country, and I would be glad to put them in your venture as a partner."
"And I've five or six hundred," said Appleby.
Jordan's face brightened, but he did not answer for a minute. "Well, I've no use for pretending I wouldn't be glad to have the dollars—but one has to do the square thing," he said. "The risks are going to be heavy, because until we get it all quite straight we may lose the catch quite often before we can put it on the market, and there's always chances of losing the schooner, while you'd have to take too much on trust. You don't know the ins and outs of this contract, and I couldn't figure them all out to you."
Niven laughed a little, and laid his hand on Jordan's shoulder. "I know the man who's going to put it through, and I could trust him with a good deal more than the dollars. We'll go round to Holway's, and fix it all up to-morrow."
It was late before Jordan left them, and Niven and Appleby, who walked with him a little way, stopped a moment as they went back to the hotel. On the one hand, sprinkled with big electric lights, the city climbed the rise, and they could see its maze of roofs and towering telegraph poles. On the other the inlet shone like silver under the moon, with the ivory shape of the liner in the foreground and three great ships riding to their anchors farther out. Niven smiled a little as he turned to his companion.
"One is your home, the other mine," he said. "Tom, you haven't told me whether you are still quite contented with the life you have chosen."
Appleby's face was grave, but his eyes shone a little. "It is a grim life—especially in the sailing ships—Chriss, though they are not all like the Aldebaran, but I still fancy it is the one that is best for me. After all, are there any things your money can buy you better than those which are given for nothing to every man at sea?"
THE END
Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London and Bungay.