The yellow book: an illustrated quarterly (6.1895)

By Enoch Arnold Bennett 97
fiends something to pass them down food on the voyage and give
them an airing at nights. We had a particularly lively trip,
battened everything down tight, and scarcely uncovered till we got
into port. Then I and another man found those five girls among
the coal.”
“ Dead, eh ? ”
“They’d simply torn themselves to pieces. Their bits of frock
things were in strips, and they were scratched deep from top to
toe. The Chinese had never troubled their heads about them at
all, although they must have known it meant death. You may
bet there was a row. The Japanese authorities make you search
ship before sailing, now.”
“ Well ? ”
“ Well, I sha’n’t die like that. That’s all.”
He stretched himself out once more, and for ten minutes
neither spoke. The park-keeper strolled up again.
“Get up, there ! ” he said shortly and gruffly.
“ Up ye get, mate,” added Darkey, but the man on the bench
did not stir. One look at his face sufficed to startle the keeper,
and presently two policemen were wheeling an ambulance cart to
the hospital. Darkey followed, gave such information as he could,
and then went his own ways.

II
In the afternoon the patient regained full consciousness. His
eyes wandered vacantly about the illimitable ward, with its rows of
beds stretching away on either side of him. A woman with a
white cap, a white apron, and white wristbands bent over him,
and he felt something gratefully warm passing down his throat.
For