“I want a lawyer, or rather I want advice which I suppose only a lawyer can give me. I was speaking about it to George Gardiner, and he mentioned your name.”
“I am obliged to George; he is my very good friend. To whom have I the pleasure of speaking?”
“I’m Max Lander.”
“I am pleased to make your acquaintance, as I should any friend of Mr. Gardiner’s. You, like him, are connected with the sea.”
“How did you find that out? Do I look as if I were?”
“Perhaps only to the instructed eye.” I wondered who, with ordinary perception, could associate him with anything else. “I am so fortunate as to have many friends among sailors, therefore I am always on the look-out for one.”
“That so?”
He kept trifling with his beard, apparently desirous that the burden of the conversation should rest with me.
“You know Mr. Gardiner well?”
“Not over well.”