“Guest be blowed!” I replied in my surliest tone. “If that’s Jim Hughes, the sooner I ’as my money and gets ashore agen the better I’ll like it.” “I should be hurt if I thought you meant that,” he said banteringly; “but I know you don’t. We’ve hit it off together charmingly, I’m sure, notwithstanding the fact that I’m so ‘difficult’ socially. And I’d make such delightful plans for your comfort and amusement. It seems hard that we should have to part.” At that moment, and not a little to my relief, we heard a voice which was unmistakably Hughes’, for he was expressing, by means of a liberal use of his favourite adjective, the unwillingness with which he set eyes on “the old tub again.” “Well,” said Mullen, when Hughes entered the cabin, “and how’s your wife?” “Better,” was the answer. “Ah, that’s capital; I congratulate you, I’m sure. So glad to see you back again. Except, of course, for the fact that we shall be deprived of your brother’s company. He _is_ your brother you said, didn’t you? Though really one need hardly ask; the likeness, I’m sure, is wonderful. But what a man it is, Hughes! Such geniality, such urbanity, such a flow of spirits, such a fund of information, and, above all, such manners!” Hughes, who had probably never seen Mullen in this vein before, looked first at him and then at me in astonishment. “Stow your jaw!” I said shortly. “If you’re going to pay me for the job, pay me and let me go!” “Certainly, certainly, my dear fellow,” replied Mullen, smiling. “Yes, you and I _have_ a little account to settle, haven’t we? I’ll pay you, by all means. I always do pay my debts, and with interest. First, about the hulk.” He had been standing by the door all the time, but he now stepped forward and counted out ten sovereigns upon the table. “Will that satisfy you and keep your mouth shut?” he said, stepping back again. I nodded. “Put them in your pocket, then, and that matter’s settled.” I stooped to pick up the coins, but as I did so Mullen suddenly pushed me with all his strength against Hughes, knocking the two of us backward upon the bunk. In another second he had stepped out of the cabin, pulling the door to with a bang, and then we heard the rattle of the outside bolt in the socket. Hughes hurled me off and sprang up with blazing eyes. “Did you take the bolt off and put it outside?” he asked. “No.” “Then ’_e_’s done it, and ’e means mischief for both of us! The ----’s bad enough for anything. I know ’im; and ’ere we are caught like rats in a trap.” “That’s all right,” I said, and hunching my shoulder to the door and making a pivot of my right foot, I burst the thing open with a crash, the screws starting from their sockets and pattering upon a locker opposite like spent bullets.