‘I realise you don’t want to throw your good money away just like that - I respect you for that, my boy. But you’d put it in a boat, d’you see? You’d buy that boat, you’d be the owner of that ship and would come along. Sure, so you could watch me running things. And the money we’d make there, that would be fifty-fifty. That’s an honest deal, isn’t it?’

‘But Mr Vantoch,’ Mr Golombek at last groaned, a little unhappily, ‘we just don’t have that sort of money!’

‘Well, that’s different,’ said the captain. ‘Sorry. But in that case I don’t see why you looked me up.’

‘So you could give us a story, captain. You must have had a lot of adventures - ’

‘That I have, my boy. Damned adventures I’ve had.’

‘Ever been shipwrecked?’

‘What’s that? Shipwrecked? Oh no. What do you mean? Give me a good ship and nothing can happen to her. Go and ask around Amsterdam for my references. You go and ask.’

‘What about natives? Meet any natives there?’

Captain van Toch shook his head. ‘That’s not a subject for educated people. I’m not going to talk about that.’

‘Tell us something else then.’

‘Yeah, tell,’ the captain growled mistrustfully. ‘So you can go and sell it to some company which will then send in its own ships. Let me tell you, my lad, people are great crooks. And the greatest crooks are those bankers in Colombo.’

‘Have you often been to Colombo?’

‘Sure. Often. And to Bangkok too, and to Manilla. Boys,’ he said suddenly; ‘there’s a ship I know about. A very handy ship, and cheap at the price. Lying in Rotterdam. Come and look her over with me. Rotterdam, that’s only just round the corner,’ he pointed with his thumb over his shoulder. ‘Ships are dirt cheap at present, boys. Like old iron. She’s only six years old and runs on diesel. Would you like to look her over?’

‘We can’t, Mr Vantoch.’

‘A queer lot you two are,’ the captain sighed. Then he blew his nose noisily into a sky-blue handkerchief. ‘And you wouldn’t know of anybody who’d like to buy a ship?’

‘Here, in jevíško?’

‘Sure, here or hereabouts.