A Queer Race: The Story of a Strange People — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

ow! Lt tng ka Ss JAF oe 4 oe » A QUEER RACE. THE STORY OF A STRANGE PEOPLE By WILLIAM WESTALL. CHAPTER LI. FOUL PLAY. THE heat and burden of the day were over, and I had withdrawn to my own room to write my private letters and think over a few matters which required more con- sideration than I had yet been able to give them. My nerves were beginning to recover from the shock they had sustained by the loss of the Niobe, and the cy- clone at Colon; nevertheless, the outlock was still dark, the claims arising out of these two disasters being exceed- ingly heavy, and ‘to meet them would tax our resources to the utmost. Another big loss and we should be “in Queer Street.” The company would have to suspend payment and go into liquidation. The worst of it was that, as touching the Niobe, f had rendered myself—in a moral sense—almost person- ally responsible. A brand-new ship, Al at Lloyd’s, owned by a firm of repute, commanded by a captain of charac- ter, and bound only to Havana—a mere summer trip—— the risk seemed as light as well could be. I felt myself quite justified in granting a voyage policy of ten thon- sand pounds on the body of the ship, and covering her cargo for the same amount (without particular average). In fact, I thought that I had done an excellent stroke cf business, and when one of the directors, an over-cautious old curmudgeon, with whom I had never been able to geé Eomicboo cS (E(0)