IN THE DAYS OF SAIL 85 



up alongside an' overhangin' a bedroom window, we 

 swarmed up the trunk. I clambered on a branch that 

 touched the window an' tumbled in. Then you might 

 have thought the end of all things had come, for there 

 were two women asleep in the place, one old an' t'other 

 young. An' they both rushed to the window an' raised 

 squalls 'at fetched out all the police an' people in the 

 place. I can't tell you how it happened, but my pal had 

 disappeared an' I was left all alone to face it out as best 

 I could. 



"Well, they talked a lot an' shouted a lot. I told 

 'em my tale an' they told me theirs, but they talked 

 foreign, so we couldn't understand one another. How- 

 ever, there was no mistakin' what they meant, especially 

 as they began firm' pistols, an' makin' it plain 'at if I 

 didn't get back to my boat it 'ud be all the worse for me. 

 So I cleared out as far as the beach, an' there I saw my 

 pal with his feet in the flood-tide an' a' empty spirit- 

 bottle clasped in each hand, sleepin' calmly on the sand, 

 an' just within an ace o' bein' drowned not that he'd 

 ha' cared, for he wasn't in a state to care for anything. 

 I hauled him high an' dry an' then left him an' slipped 

 away to try an' get some breakfast. I hadn't touched 

 food for three days an' three nights, an' when a man's 

 like that he doesn't care even for police with pistols. 



" I wandered about an' wandered about till I came 

 to a likely lookin' little restaurant. I slipped in, an' 

 findin' only one or two people lookin' after the place, I 

 began to tell 'em what I wanted. What wi' their fright 

 an' their botherin' foreign lingo, I couldn't make 'em 

 understand, so I fell back on signs, an' that worked 'em. 

 But the worst o' them foreign breakfasts is 'at they don't 



