ODD CRAFT

By W.W. Jacobs



ESTABLISHING RELATIONS

Mr. Richard Catesby, second officer of the ss. _Wizard_, emerged from the
dock-gates in high good-humour to spend an evening ashore. The bustle of
the day had departed, and the inhabitants of Wapping, in search of
coolness and fresh air, were sitting at open doors and windows indulging
in general conversation with any-body within earshot.

[Illustration: "Mr. Richard Catesby, second officer of the ss. _Wizard_,
emerged from the dock-gates in high good-humour."]

Mr. Catesby, turning into Bashford's Lane, lost in a moment all this life
and colour. The hum of distant voices certainly reached there, but that
was all, for Bashford's Lane, a retiring thoroughfare facing a blank dock
wall, capped here and there by towering spars, set an example of
gentility which neighbouring streets had long ago decided crossly was
impossible for ordinary people to follow. Its neatly grained shutters,
fastened back by the sides of the windows, gave a pleasing idea of
uniformity, while its white steps and polished brass knockers were
suggestive of almost a Dutch cleanliness.

Mr. Catesby, strolling comfortably along, stopped suddenly for another
look at a girl who was standing in the ground-floor window of No. 5. He
went on a few paces and then walked back slowly, trying to look as though