“Well, then,” said Huish, “you give me your ’and across the table, and say, ‘Gawd strike me dead if I don’t back you up.’”
His voice was hardly raised, yet it thrilled the hearer. His face seemed the epitome of cunning, and the captain recoiled from it as from a blow.
“What for?” said he.
“Luck,” said Huish. “Substantial guarantee demanded.”
And he continued to hold out his hand.
“I don’t see the good of any such tomfoolery,” said the other.
“I do, though,” returned Huish. “Gimme your ’and and say the words; then you’ll ’ear my view of it. Don’t, and you don’t.”
The captain went through the required form, breathing short, and gazing on the clerk with anguish. What to fear he knew not, yet he feared slavishly what was to fall from the pale lips.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me ’alf a second,” said Huish, “I’ll go and fetch the byby.”
“The baby?” said Davis. “What’s that?”