He emitted a faint moan from behind a pile of cardboard boxes on the table, which might have contained gloves or handkerchiefs or neckties. I wonder what the fellow did keep in them? There was a smell of decaying coral, or Oriental dust of zoological speciments in that den of his. I could only see the top of his head and his unhappy eyes levelled at me over the barrier.
“It’s only for a couple of days,” I said, intending to cheer him up.
“Perhaps you would like to pay in advance?” he suggested eagerly.
“Certainly not!” I burst out directly I could speak. “Never heard of such a thing! This is the most infernal cheek. . . .”
He had seized his head in both hands—a gesture of despair which checked my indignation.
“Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Don’t fly out like this. I am asking everybody.”
“I don’t believe it,” I said bluntly.
“Well, I am going to. And if you gentlemen all agreed to pay in advance I could make Hamilton pay up, too. He’s always turning up ashore dead broke, and even when he has some money he won’t settle his bills. I don’t know what to do with him. He swears at me and tells me I can’t chuck a white man out into the street here. So if you only would. . . .”
I was amazed. Incredulous, too. I suspected the fellow of gratuitous impertinence. I told him with marked emphasis that I would see him and Hamilton hanged first, and requested him to conduct me to my room with no more of his nonsense. He produced then a key from somewhere and led the way out of his lair, giving me a vicious sidelong look in passing.
“Any one I know staying here?” I asked him before he left my room.