As she paused at her cabin door she heard a little noise and guessed that Jimmy was within. Opening it quickly, without switching on the light, she cried, "Here comes a big bear to eat you all up," as Jimmy often did to her. She grasped someone, and cried out in fear. It was someone grown up, kneeling on the floor.
She switched on the light and saw Louis looking up at her, blinking in the sudden glare.
"Oh, it's you. What do you want?" she said, breathlessly, though she knew quite well. In his hand he held her little bank bag of orange canvas in which the doctor had put ten pounds for her to spend on the trip.
"I w-want m—my—my m—money," he began, trembling and afraid to meet her eyes.
"To buy more whisky and make yourself more horrible than ever?" she cried, standing with her back to the door. "Well, I'll not give it to you, and if you knock me down and fight me I'll not give it you even. I'm a better fighter than you."
"I w-want it—to—to—pay him back," he cried and began to sob, violently dropping the money on the floor. "He—he said—you'd been in his cabin and—and—and in m—mine! He s—said dev—devilish things. And I punched his ugly head for him! All for you! Be—be—because you're—you're—Oh God, give me the money and let me pay him and then cut him dead."
"Do you mean that you owe Ole Fred money?"
"Of c—course. How on earth have I managed since N-naples?"
"How much is it?"
"He's paid for a lot of drinks, but that doesn't count. I w-won a good bit at poker, too. I b-borrowed sixteen pounds from him."