月亮与六便士 英文版 46～50章 chapter46~50.docVIP

Chapter XLVI  Had not been in Tahiti long before I met Captain Nichols. He came in one morning when I was having breakfast on the terrace of the hotel and introduced himself. He had heard that I was interested in Charles Strickland, and announced that he was come to have a talk about him. They are as fond of gossip in Tahiti as in an English village, and one or two enquiries I had made for pictures by Strickland had been quickly spread. I asked the stranger if he had breakfasted. Yes; I have my coffee early, he answered, but I dont mind having a drop of whisky. I called the Chinese boy. You dont think its too early? said the Captain. You and your liver must decide that between you, I replied. Im practically a teetotaller, he said, as he poured himself out a good half-tumbler of Canadian Club. When he smiled he showed broken and discoloured teeth. He was a very lean man, of no more than average height, with gray hair cut short and a stubbly gray moustache. He had not shaved for a couple of days. His face was deeply lined, burned brown by long exposure to the sun, and he had a pair of small blue eyes which were astonishingly shifty. They moved quickly, following my smallest gesture, and they gave him the look of a very thorough rogue. But at the moment he was all heartiness and good-fellowship. He was dressed in a bedraggled suit of khaki, and his hands would have been all the better for a wash. I knew Strickland well, he said, as he leaned back in his chair and lit the cigar I had offered him. Its through me he came out to the islands. Where did you meet him? I asked. In Marseilles. What were you doing there? He gave me an ingratiating smile. Well, I guess I was on the beach. My friends appearance suggested that he was now in the same predicament, and I prepared myself to cultivate an agreeable acquaintance. The society of beach-combers always repays the small pains you need be at to enjoy it. They are easy of approach and affable in conversation. They seldom put on