“I come down ’ere, to see a man I thought ’ad got wot I wanted. I’ve put up at a nice little place, down near the river; I was makin’ for it, w’en I run foul of them land-sharks.”
“What place is it?” asked Philip.
“Well, Mr. Crowdy—leastways, I should say—Mr. Chater—they calls it ‘The Three Watermen.’”
CHAPTER VI
AT THE SIGN OF “THE THREE WATERMEN”
For a few moments Philip Chater sat gazing at Peter Quist, as though he half suspected that the man knew more than his guileless face proclaimed, and that he was playing a joke upon him. Seeing, however, that his friend appeared to be completely in earnest, and that he had simply answered his question as straightforwardly as it had been put, he merely remarked, in a surprised tone—
“Why—what takes you to ‘The Three Watermen’?”
“I was a cruisin’ about in these parts—bein’ near the water, and so comin’ more nateral like—w’en I turned in there for a toothful, an’ found they let beds. Wantin’ a bed—(for man were not made to sleep on the ’ard ground)—I took it. It looks over the river, an’ is cheap—which is a consideration.”
It suddenly occurred to Philip that he might well make use of this man, to discover whether or not it would be safe to venture into the place that night. If, as the Shady ’un had suggested, he was expected to arrive in company with the man known as the Count, and if, further, that man knew anything of the murder of the real Dandy Chater, Philip’s position was precarious in the extreme; indeed, safety only lay in the company of those people who were ignorant of the death of his twin brother.
“Look here, Quist,” he said, after a little hesitation—“I want you to do me a favour. At this same house where you have a lodging, a certain man is likely to be, in whom I have an interest. I can’t explain the full circumstances; but I am playing a desperate game, for a large stake, and it is essential that I should know whether this man is there or not; at the same time, I do not wish him to know—or, indeed, any one else—that I am making enquiries. Will you—to oblige a friend, drop a casual enquiry as to whether the Count is there?”
Captain Quist stared at him, in open-mouthed astonishment. “’Ere-’old ’ard, Phil, my boy; I’m afraid the beds at that ’ouse will be a bit too expensive for me. I thought it was a place w’ere a ordinary sailor-man might get a cheap lodging; but w’en it comes to a matter of counts——”