“I wonder what he was doing about here?”
“Ah! Who knows? But don’t bother your head about him any more. Get you to your bed, and I hope the bump’ll be flatter by the morning.”
CHAPTER THE EIGHTH
THE FACE AT THE WINDOW
At breakfast next morning Martin expected to have to tell his story over again to Dick Gollop, who had been out on duty half the night. But the moment he entered the room, with his head still bandaged, the constable took the wind out of his sails.
“Ahoy, shipmate!” he said, “how’s the weather? By what I hear you’ve run through a bit of a squall.”
“You know, then?” said Martin.
“Know! Of course I know. When my watch was over, somewhere about four bells, and I came below dead-beat and turned in, d’you think I could get any sleep? Not a wink, believe me. There was my old woman wide-awake, and bursting with the news.
“ ‘Gollop,’ says she, ‘there’s rogues and rascals in the world.’ That being no news at all, I just gave a grunt and began to snore. ‘Listen to me,’ says she, ‘and don’t pretend.’ What you can’t help, put up with. So I listened, always ready to oblige, and out it came, like a flood over a weir.