His disturbance obviously increased.
“Now, Mr. Paine, I’ve done nothing to you to make you behave nasty to me. If I made a mistake in coming here to make a few inquiries I apologise, and no man can do more than that, so there’s no harm done to either side.”
“Was Batters your shipmate?”
“My shipmate?”
“Was he an officer or member of the crew on board The Flying Scud?”
“My gracious, no!”
“He was on The Flying Scud?”
“He might have been.”
“As passenger?”
“The Flying Scud’s a cargo boat; she don’t carry no passengers.”