"Yes, yes!"
"He's gone. He slunk out with his tin cans, through the back way, as soon as you got started in this scrap."
I did not wait for anything more, for some one was unlocking the front door. I darted out the back exit and into the lane. Down the lane, in the darkness, I tore like a hurricane, then along the waterfront until there was a mile between me and the scene of my late encounter.
I slowed up at a convenient horse-trough, splashed my hands and face in the cooling water and adjusted my clothing as best I could, then I strolled into the shipping shed, where stevedores and dock labourers were busy, by electric light, completing the loading of a smart-looking little cargo boat.
A notion seized me. It was a coaster, so I knew I could not be going very far away.
I walked up the gang-plank, and aboard.
CHAPTER VI
Aboard the Coaster
An ordinary seaman, then the second officer of the little steamer passed me on the deck, but both were busy and paid no more attention to my presence than if I had been one of themselves.