I held on to the edge of the chart table as the ship swayed and dipped. Mulligan watched me. He didn't speak, but just stood there gazing up at me, a sarcastic little smile on his deformed mouth. 'Well, what do you want me for?' I asked. I couldn't stand him staring at me. 'Are we nearly there?'
He nodded. 'There's our position.' He pointed to the chart. 'That's the Longships Light way to starb'd noo. We'll drop ye off at Whitesands Bay, just north o' Sennen.' His voice, with its queer Scots accent, droned on, giving me directions and pointing out landmarks on shore for my guidance. But I didn't listen. How can anyone listen to a voice purring out of a half Scots, half French parentage when the cognac is mounting to his head and making the blood hammer through his veins? The voice suddenly changed and the new rasp in it penetrated my mind. 'What about yer fare?' The question was repeated in a sharp, staccato bark.
'I paid it to you when I came aboard at Naples,' I reminded him. What was he getting at? My brain struggled to focus on what he was saying. 'I paid you fifty pounds in English notes. And it was twice what I ought to have paid.'
'That's as may be,' he answered, and his eyes never left my face. 'You paid me for a passage to England. But ye didn't pay me for putting ye ashore at dead o' night on a desairted stretch o' the coast. Smuggling a man into England is agin the law. It's dangerous, man, and Ah'm no willing ter take the risk wi'oot Ah get something oot of it.'
'See here, Mulligan,' I said angrily. 'You agreed to take me to England for fifty pounds. You knew what risk you ran when you took my fifty quid. Now you keep your side of the bargain.'
He peered up at me with that crooked, twisted smile of his. 'If that's the way ye want it, man, all reecht. We'll take ye on to Cardiff where we're bound and put ye ashore there. But Ah'm warnin' ye — they're awfu' strict at the docks there and unless ye ken yer way aboot — '
'Come off it, Mulligan,' I said and stretched out my hand to grip him by the collar and shake some sense into him. But he backed away from me, showing his discoloured teeth as he stretched his hare-lip to a grin. His right hand was in his pocket. I forced myself to relax. No good quarrelling with the man on whom my safety depended. 'What's your price?' I said. 'I'll give you an extra ten pounds.'
He shook his head and laughed. 'Ye'll be landed at Cardiff or ye'll pay my price,' he said.
'And what's your price?' I asked him.
'One hundred and thirty pounds,' he answered.