PROLOGUE U

they told me. It sounded all right to me, but I didn't
say anything. Not then. I went away and made a few,,
enquiries. I found out what they were paying for this
sort of stuff in Bethnal Green and Hoxton and those
parts, in London, you know, where the furniture's
made—"

"Bednal Green, yes/' said the chief engineer proudly.
"My uncle Stefan was there, yes, old Stefan in Bednal
Green. Socialist/' he added, as a melancholy after-
thought.

"He was, was he?" Mr. Golspie boomed, with a
certain brutal heartiness characteristic of him. "Well,
good luck to him! Ill get on with the tale. They were
paying half as much again for the same sort o' stuff,
veneers and inlays, not a bit better, here in London.
Couldn't get it where it was produced so cheap, y'see?
Didn't look about 'em. They're getting slow here.
There's something in this for me, I said to myself, and
off I went down there again, to see this other Mikorsky,
the cousin. I wanted to know how much of this stuff I
could have every month, various lines, and the prices.
They told me, and guaranteed it. We had a few drinks
on it, and I walk out, with a contract in my pocket, so
much of this, that, and the other, at so much, whenever
I liked to take it up, and me the sole agent for Great
Britain."

"Very good business/' said the captain, with a grave
judicial air, in spite of his rather goggly eyes. "And
now, you sell it all, eh? You make big profit?"

"What I do is to find somebody who's in the way of
selling it, somebody who's in this line o' business, and
then go in with 'em." Mr. Golspie refreshed himself
noisily. "And if I haven't laid my hand on somebody