A Queer Race: The Story of a Strange People — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

10 A QUEER RACE. to commit a felony and run a serious risk for an old song. But the question that most concerned me was my own course of action. What should I do? It was obvious that I could not bring a charge of barratry against so in- tensely respectable a firm as Barnes & Brandyman with- out the most convincing proofs. But the only proof I could adduce was Bolsover’s statement, and as he wa sure to be flatly contradicted by the captain, the mate, and the carpenter, that would not avail me much, even though I should find and produce Alec Tobin, the other sailor who had seen the holes in the Niobe’s hull. Moreover, no insurance company, above all a company so weak and young as ours, would venture, save on the very strongest grounds; openly to dispute a claim and eit so strong a firm as Barnes & Brandyman; for failure would not only involve discredit, but increase the original less by the cost of an expensive lawsuit. All the same, I was determined nct to let these people reap the reward of their villainy if I could possibly help it, and after a long cogitation I decided on a plan of cainpaign which I proceeded to put into execution at the next Board meeting. When the Niobe claim came up for discussion, | quietly observed, to the great amaze- ment of the directors, that I did not think Barnes & Brandyman would insist on its payment. Of course I was overwhelmed by an avalanche of questions, to which I answered that for the moment I must keep my own counsel, but that at the next meeting they should know everything, assuring them that in the meantime they miziit trust me to neither compromise the company’s rey utation nor involve it in any further liability. With this they were content, probably because they guessed that I had found something out, and were ready to grasp at any chance, however remote, of keeping the concern on its legs, J am a pretty good draughtsman, and when I went hoine in the evening I drew a little sketch, which I made as graphic and as life-like as [ could. It represented the hold of a ship, a man boring holes with a big auger, another man behind him holding a lantern; and, hovering above both, a grinning devil, in his hand a well-filled bag, on witch was inscribed ‘* £20,060.” The first man (E(0) 0A A boo KS (E(0) m