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.In a moment, devil only knows why, Hermann and I were looking at each other most inimically.He caught up his hat without more ado and I gave myself the pleasure of calling after him:»Take my advice and make Falk pay for breaking up your ship.You aren't likely to get anything else out of him.«When I got on board my ship, the old mate, who was very full of the events of the morning, remarked:»I saw the tug coming back from the outer Roads just before two P.M.« (He never by any chance used the words morning or afternoon.Always P.M.or A.M., log-book style.) »Smart work that.Man's always in a state of hurry.He's a regular chucker-out, ain't he, sir? There's a few pubs I know of in the East-end of London that would be all the better for one of his sort around the bar.« He chuckled at his joke.»A regular chucker-out.Now he has fired out that Dutchman head over heels, I suppose our turn's coming to-morrow morning.«We were all on deck at break of day (even the sick – poor devils – had crawled out) ready to cast off in the twinkling of an eye.Nothing came.Falk did not come.At last, when I began to think that probably something had gone wrong in his engine-room, we perceived the tug going by, full pelt, down the river, as if we hadn't existed.For a moment I entertained the wild notion that he was going to turn round in the next reach.Afterwards, I watched his smoke appear above the plain, now here, now there, according to the windings of the river.It disappeared.Then without a word I went down to breakfast.I just simply went down to breakfast.Not one of us uttered a sound till the mate, after imbibing – by means of suction out of a saucer – his second cup of tea, exclaimed: »Where the devil is the man gone to?«»Courting!« I shouted, with such a fiendish laugh that the old chap didn't venture to open his lips any more.I started to the office perfectly calm.Calm with excessive rage.Evidently they knew all about it already, and they treated me to a show of consternation.The manager, a soft-footed, obese man, breathing short, got up to meet me, while all round the room the young clerks, bending over their desks, cast glances in my direction.The fat man, without waiting for my complaint, wheezing heavily and in a tone as if he himself were incredulous, conveyed to me the news that Falk – Captain Falk – had declined – had absolutely declined – to tow my ship – to have anything to do with my ship – this day or any other day.Never!I did my best to preserve a cool appearance, but, all the same, I must have shown how much taken aback I was.We were talking in the middle of the room.Suddenly, behind my back some ass blew his nose with a great noise and at the same time another quill-driver got up and went out on the landing hastily.It occurred to me I was cutting a foolish figure there.I demanded angrily to see the principal in his private room.The skin of Mr.Siegers' head showed dead white between the iron gray streaks of hair lying plastered cross-wise from ear to ear over the top of his skull in the manner of a bandage.His narrow sunken face was of an uniform and permanent terra-cotta colour, like a piece of pottery.He was sickly, thin, and short, with wrists like a boy of ten.But from that debile body there issued a bullying voice, tremendously loud, harsh and resonant, as if produced by some powerful mechanical contrivance in the nature of a fog-horn.I do not know what he did with it in the private life of his home, but in the larger sphere of business it presented the advantage of overcoming arguments without the slightest mental effort, by the mere volume of sound.We had had several passages of arms.It took me all I knew to guard the interest of my owners – whom, nota bene, I had never seen – while Siegers (who had made their acquaintance some years before, during a business tour in Australia) pretended to the knowledge of their innermost minds, and, in the character of ›our very good friends,‹ threw them perpetually at my head.He looked at me with a jaundiced eye (there was no love lost between us), and declared at once that it was strange, very strange.His pronunciation of English was so extravagant that I can't even attempt to reproduce it.For instance, he said »Fferie strantch.« Combined with the bellowing intonation it made the language of one's childhood sound weirdly startling, and even if considered purely as a kind of unmeaning noise it filled you with astonishment at first.»They had,« he continued, »been acquainted with Captain Falk for very many years, and never had any reason.«»That's why I come to you, of course,« I interrupted.»I've the right to know the meaning of this infernal nonsense.« In the half-light of the room, which was greenish, because of the tree-tops screening the window, I saw him writhe his meagre shoulders.It came into my head, as disconnected ideas will come at all sorts of times into one's head, that this, most likely, was the very room where, if the tale were true, Falk had been lectured by Mr.Siegers, the father.Mr.Siegers' (the son's) overwhelming voice, in brassy blasts, as though he had been trying to articulate words through a trumpet, was expressing his great regret at conduct characterized by a very marked want of discretion.As I lived I was being lectured, too! His deafening gibberish was difficult to follow, but it was my conduct – mine! – that.Damn! I wasn't going to stand this.»What on earth are you driving at?« I asked in a passion.I put my hat on my head (he never offered a seat to anybody), and as he seemed for the moment struck dumb by my irreverence, I turned my back on him and marched out
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