“Phew!” said Kettle, “it’s hot here in Suez.  Great James! to think of the way I’ve been sweating about this blame’ ship without a scrap of need of it.  Here, hurry up with the lucre-boxes.  I want to get across to the old Parakeet and wash the taste of a lot of things out of my mouth.”

CHAPTER XI

THE DEAR INSURED

“He isn’t the ‘dear deceased’ yet by a very long chalk,” said Captain Kettle.

“If he was,” retorted Lupton with a dry smile, “my immediate interest in him would cease, and the Company would shrug its shoulders, and pay, and look pleasant.  In the mean while he’s, shall we say, ‘the dear insured,’ and a premium paying asset that the Company’s told me off to keep an eye on.”

“Do much business in your particular line?” “Why yes, recently a good deal.  It’s got to be quite a fashionable industry of late to pick up some foolish young gentleman with expectations, insure his life for a big pile, knock him quietly on the head, and then come back home in a neat black suit to pocket the proceeds.”

“Does this Mr.—­” Kettle referred to the passenger list—­“Hamilton’s the rogue’s name, isn’t it?”

“No, he’s the flat.  Cranze is the—­er—­his friend who stands to draw the stamps.”

“Does Mr. Hamilton know you?”

“Never seen me in his life.”

“Does this thief Cranze?”

“Same.”

“Then, sir, I’ll tell you what’s your ticket,” said Kettle, who had got an eye to business.  “Take a passage with me out to the Gulf and back, and keep an eye on the young gentleman yourself.  You’ll find it a bit cold in the Western Ocean at first, but once we get well in the Gulf Stream, and down toward New Orleans, I tell you you’ll just enjoy life.  It’ll be a nice trip for you, and I’m sure I’ll do my best to make things comfortable for you.”

“I’m sure you would, Captain, but it can’t be done at the price.”

Kettle looked thoughtfully at the passenger list.  “I could promise you a room to yourself.  We’re not very full up this run.  In fact, Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Cranze are the only two names I’ve got down so far, and I may as well tell you we’re not likely to have others.  You see Birds are a very good line, but they lay themselves out more for cargo than passengers.”

“So our local agent in Liverpool found out for us already, and that’s mostly why I’m here.  Don’t you see, Captain, if the pair of them had started off to go tripping round the Mexican Gulf in one of the regular passenger boats, there would have been nothing suspicious about that.  But when they book berths by you, why then it begins to look fishy at once.”