"Then they must be honest explosives, or they don't go below my hatches.
Explosives that's to blow a man up honest, before his face."

"There are cartridges," said the young man who had shaken hands.

"That'll do," said the masterful sailor. And pointing a thick finger
towards the banker, added, "Now, mister," and sat back in his chair.

"It is a very simple matter," explained the banker, in a thick, suave
voice. "We have a cargo--a greater part of it weight, though there is
some measurement--a few cases of light goods, clothing and such. You
will load in the river, and all will be sent to you in lighters.
There is nothing heavy, nothing large. There is also no insurance, you
understand. What falls out of the slings and is lost overside is lost."

The banker paused for breath.

"I understand," said Captain Cable. "It's the same with me and my ship.
There is no insurance, no tricking underwriters into unusual risks. It's
neck or nothing with me."

And he looked hard at the breathless banker, with whom it was, in this
respect, nothing.

"I understand right enough," he added, with an affable nod to the three
foreigners.

"You will sail from London with a full general cargo for Malmo or
Stockholm, or somewhere where officials are not wide-awake. You meet in
the North Sea, at a point to be fixed between yourselves, the _Olaf_,