"
"How long have you been in the United States?"
"Only a few months, Madam."
"How come you to speak English so well?"
"In my young days I shipped aboard a bark plying between Helsingfors
and New York."
"You are a Russian?"
"I am a Finlander, Madam."
"Have you been a sailor all your life?"
"Yes, Madam. For a time I was an unimportant officer on board a
battleship in the Russian Navy, until I was discovered to be a
Nihilist, when I was cast into prison. I escaped last May, and came to
New York."
"What have you been doing since you arrived here?"
"I was so fortunate as to become mate on the turbine yacht 'The
Walrus,' owned by Mr. Stockwell."
"Oh, that's the multi-millionaire whose bank failed a month ago?"
"Yes, Madam."
"But does he still keep a yacht?"
"No, Madam. I think he has never been aboard this one, although it is
probably the most expensive boat in these waters. I am told it cost
anywhere from half a million to a million. She was built by
Thornycroft, like a cruiser, with Parson's turbine engines in her.
After the failure, Captain and crew were discharged, and I am on board
as a sort of watchman until she is sold, but there is not a large
market for a boat like 'The Walrus,' and I am told they will take the
fittings out of her, and sell her as a cruiser to one of the South
American republics."
"Well, Mr. Johnson, you ought to be a reliable man, if the Court has
put you in charge of so valuable a property.
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