The next afternoon Denry received by post a ring in a box. "I will not
submit to insult," ran the brief letter.
"I only said 'Rothschild'!" Denry murmured to himself. "Can't a fellow
say 'Rothschild'?"
But secretly he was proud of himself.
CHAPTER V
THE MERCANTILE MARINE
I
The decisive scene, henceforward historic, occurred in the shanty known
as "John's cabin"--John being the unacknowledged leader of the
long-shore population under the tail of Llandudno pier. The cabin,
festooned with cordage, was lighted by an oil-lamp of a primitive model,
and round the orange case on which the lamp was balanced sat Denry,
Cregeen, the owner of the lifeboat, and John himself (to give, as it
were, a semi-official character to whatever was afoot).
"Well, here you are," said Denry, and handed to Cregeen a piece of
paper.
"What's this, I'm asking ye?" said Cregeen, taking the paper in his
large fingers and peering at it as though it had been a papyrus.
But he knew quite well what it was. It was a cheque for twenty-five
pounds. What he did not know was that, with the ten pounds paid in cash
earlier in the day, it represented a very large part indeed of such of
Denry's savings as had survived his engagement to Ruth Earp.
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