“Well, if I was, and what then?” said he.
“I wish to know full particulars about her,” I replied.
“By what authority do you ask me?” he said, looking suspiciously from under his eyebrows.
“I had friends on board her, and wish to know what has become of them,” I answered.
“Oh, you do, do you? Well, I wish, stranger, I could tell you; good morning.”
I soon saw the sort of man with whom I had to deal.
“Now, to be frank with you, Mr Noakes, I have not come all the way from Calcutta to Macao to be put off with such an answer as you have given me,” I said, looking him full in the face. “I have determined to learn what has become of my friends; and if I find them I shall find the brig, or learn what has become of her; and at all events I will take care that you are not the loser.”
“I see that you are a young man of sense,” he remarked, looking up at me with one eye. “What is it you want to know about the Emu? But I guess, you smoke now?”
“No, I do not touch tobacco,” I answered. “But I wish to know if a Mrs Clayton, a little girl, and servant embarked on board her.”
“I’d have sold you a chest of fine cheroots, if you did,” he observed. “Yes, those people embarked on board her; and what then?”