Opening it quickly, without switching on the
light, she cried, "Here comes a big bear to eat you all up," as Jimmy
often did to her. She grasped someone, and cried out in fear. It was
someone grown up, kneeling on the floor.
She switched on the light and saw Louis looking up at her, blinking in
the sudden glare.
"Oh, it's you. What do you want?" she said, breathlessly, though she
knew quite well. In his hand he held her little bank bag of orange
canvas in which the doctor had put ten pounds for her to spend on the
trip.
"I w-want m--my--my m--money," he began, trembling and afraid to meet
her eyes.
"To buy more whisky and make yourself more horrible than ever?" she
cried, standing with her back to the door. "Well, I'll not give it to
you, and if you knock me down and fight me I'll not give it you even.
I'm a better fighter than you."
"I w-want it--to--to--pay him back," he cried and began to sob,
violently dropping the money on the floor. "He--he said--you'd been in
his cabin and--and--and in m--mine! He s--said dev--devilish things.
And I punched his ugly head for him! All for you! Be--be--because
you're--you're--Oh God, give me the money and let me pay him and then
cut him dead."
"Do you mean that you owe Ole Fred money?"
"Of c--course. How on earth have I managed since N-naples?"
"How much is it?"
"He's paid for a lot of drinks, but that doesn't count.
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