But supposing he'd been there before, he
surely put more back in the end than he ever took out. On the other
hand, if I'd had the money in Colon I might have gone back to the
Windwards and to the triangle of three trees, with Sadler, Irish, and
Stevey Todd, and so back to Greenough and Madge Pemberton, and been a
hotel-keeper maybe, which is a good trade in Greenough. Craney was
ambitious and enterprising. He had, as you might say, soaring ideas,
and he'd been a valuable man to Clyde for the complicated schemes he
was always setting up. He was a medium-sized man, with light hair and
eyebrows, and a yellowish face, and a frame lean, though sinewy, and
had only one good eye, the other pale like a fish's. His business eye
always looked like it was boring a hole in some ingenious idea. As an
arguer on the _Hebe Maitland_ his style was airy and gorgeous,
contrary to the style of Stevey Todd, who was a cautious arguer, and
gingerly.
Craney was about forty years old at the time of the _Hebe
Maitland's_ loss, and Sadler about the same.
There were four of us then, left at Colon, after Craney and Abe had
gone. Pretty soon we were badly off. We couldn't seem to get berths,
and not much to eat.
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