“How did you come aboard?” he demanded.
“Never mind how he came aboard,” interrupted George petulantly. “What d’you s’pose I care how he came aboard. He’s here now. Sit down, Gardy, and talk. You can go, Riordan; I’ll have you in when Gardy’s winded.”
Riordan went, scowling at me, and I seated myself in the chair he had vacated.
“Chanler, there is no time for me to talk to you for your entertainment,” I began abruptly. “You’re sober now, you’re yourself, and you can’t shirk responsibility on the pretense of being incapacitated. Brack got Miss Baldwin to accompany him up to the mine with the lie that I was up there and had suggested that she come up. He is up there with her—alone. And the devil only knows what his plans are.”
Chanler merely shuddered nervously.
“Darn you, Gardy! Here I was just coming out of a sinking spell and you come along and spoil everything. Why do you bring me news like that? It—it disturbs me, really.”
“No,” I said, “you can’t talk in that strain and have it accepted any longer, Chanler. You are a man again, not an alcoholic imbecile, and you’ve got to play the part.”
I told him the true purpose of Brack’s visit to Kalmut Fiord and of the day’s events.
“And now, by a lie he has Miss Baldwin go with him. Chanler, we can’t leave her up there with him, alone.”
Chanler writhed and groaned.