Free The Devil's Cocktail by Alexander Wilson

bank conjure up pleasant memories – memories of hours spent in weeding my four by six garden at home – “To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears”. In case you don’t recognise that, it’s a bit of Wordsworth!’
    â€˜What are we to do about Hudson?’ demanded Hugh abruptly.
    Cousins turned, and looked at him reproachfully.
    â€˜Have you no artistic soul?’ he asked. ‘What connection can Hudson have with Wordsworth?’
    â€˜Get your four by six mind fixed on Hudson for a few minutes, and answer my question!’
    â€˜My garden is four by six,’ replied Cousins, ‘I was not talking about my mind. That is more likely to be six by four,’ he added reflectively. ‘However, returning to Hudson with great reluctance, I think that the only thing we can do is to keep a good watch on him now, and in India.’
    â€˜We can’t very well have him arrested when we reach Bombay, I suppose!’ said Hugh regretfully.
    â€˜Of course not! No evidence against him. But on the other hand by keeping him under surveillance he might lead us to the very object of our journey.’
    â€˜There’s something in that,’ admitted Hugh.
    â€˜There’s a good deal in it. He doesn’t know that we suspect his connection with Kamper, and so “ finis coronat opus ”!’
    â€˜Is that also from the back of a dictionary?’ asked Hugh.
    Cousins wrinkled up his face in thought.
    â€˜I’m afraid it must be,’ he said.
    Hugh laughed.
    â€˜Run away!’ he said. ‘I am going to find Joan and gaze on the desolation you spoke about.’
    â€˜Go, my son! And be careful never to give Hudson the slightest inkling that you know he is anything more than an Indian Civil Servant, and a blighter. I have an interview with the laundry man about a shirt that was returned without a button. As Epictetus remarked at Hierapolis—’
    But Hugh had gone.
    â€˜He seems to know me,’ muttered Cousins, and with that cryptic remark he went off to find his laundry man.
    Hugh made his way to the promenade deck, and had a narrow escape of falling into the clutches of Miss Gregson, who was talking to an elderly man near the head of the gangway. However Joan, who evidently had been waiting for him, darted across and, taking his arm led him to the ship’s side. She was immensely interested in everything she saw, and to her the Suez Canal was anything but a scene of desolation.
    â€˜Oh, Hugh,’ she said, ‘it’s wonderful to travel, isn’t it? I couldspend my life just journeying round the world.’
    â€˜You’d soon get tired of it,’ he said with the blasé air of the old traveller.
    â€˜I’m sure I never should,’ she denied. ‘It is all so wonderful, I think!’
    They passed two steamers tied up to let the mail boat by, and she laughed merrily at the witticisms exchanged between the crews; and even in a dredger, with its Arab sailors, she found something to excite her interest. Everything was all so gloriously novel to Joan, and there were many women on board who looked at her with envy, and sighed for their lost youth; many of whom a prolonged sojourn in India had robbed of two of life’s most precious gifts, simplicity and the power of enjoyment.
    Presently they heard footsteps, and Miss Gregson joined them, a most bewitching smile on her lips.
    â€˜I have never met a brother and sister so devoted to each other,’ she said. ‘You two positively make me long for a brother.’
    Hugh looked at Joan with such a pained expression on his face that it was all she could do to prevent herself from laughing. At the same time she greatly resented the efforts of this woman to capture her brother, and had resolved to checkmate her. Miss Gregson ranged herself on the other side of Shannon.
    â€˜I consider you have treated me