“F—fruit,” he stammered. “She carries fruit. Bananas, and for—forbidden fruit and—and things like that.”
He knew he was talking like an idiot, but for the life of him he could not talk sense. Little wonder. He was having his first little chat with a millionaire, but it was not to be his last.
CHAPTER XIX
THE UNWILLING GUEST
“Do you mean to say,” said the magnate who had been taken on board the North Star, “that this ship is loaded with bananas from Central America, and that it is not chartered by our Company?”
“Bananas and grapefruit.” Johnny was gaining control of himself. What if this were a millionaire? What if it was in his power to make or break them? He couldn’t very well do that before they arrived in New York, and that metropolis was a long way off.
“Then, sir,” said the capitalist, “you have been trespassing. This is forbidden cargo.”
“Who forbids it?”
Without answering the man stared at him for a moment. His next remark was guarded.
“You couldn’t get a cargo anywhere along the coast without bribing some one or taking the cargo by force.”
Hot words leaped to Johnny’s lips. He was no thief. He had bribed no one. He left them unsaid.