The Death Ship by B. Traven Read Free Book Online Page B

the work they had done so far.
    “I suppose you have no identification card from our police authorities either?”
    “You hit it, gentlemen. I have not.”
    “Do you not know, mister, that no alien is permitted to live in Holland without proper identification papers viséd by our authorities?”
    “How should I know?”
    “Do you mean to say that you have been living on a mountain on the moon?”
    Both cops consider this so good a joke that they laugh and laugh until they cough.
    “Get dressed and come along with us. The chief wants to see you.”
    I wonder if the Dutch hang a guy without papers or just kick him in the buttocks and take him to the chain-gang. “Has any of you gentlemen a cigarette?”
    “You may have a cigar if you like. We don’t smoke cigarettes around here. We are men, and mean to stay men. But if you wish, we’ll buy you a package of cigarettes on our way to the station.”
    “All right with me. Shoot the cigar.”
    I smoke the cigar, which is rather good, while I wash and dress. The two cops sit close by the door and follow everything I do like dogs.
    I am in no hurry. Anyway, regardless of how much time I take to get ready, there is finally nothing else to do but shove off.
    Upon coming to the police-station I was searched. This was done with all the cunning they had. Tearing open even seams. Still thinking of spies, I thought. But later it dawned upon me that they were looking, whenever they caught a sailor, for Bolshevik ideas rather than for photographs of fortresses or warships.
    They had more luck than their brethren in Antwerp. They found some twenty-eight cents in Dutch money, with which I wanted to buy a hurried breakfast.
    “Is that all the money you have?”
    “As you haven’t found any more in my pockets, it must be all.”
    “What money did you live on while here in Rotterdam?”
    “On the money I no longer have.”
    “Then you did have money when you came here?”
    “Yep.”
    “How much?”
    “I don’t remember right now how much, but it must have been in the neighborhood of a couple of thousand dollars or so.”
    “Where did you spend it?”
    “With the dames. Where else could I?”
    “Where did you get the money you had when you came here?”
    “I had taken it out of my savings-account.”
    The whole outfit roared with laughter. Somehow, they took good care to watch the high priest before they started to laugh. When they saw that he was laughing, they also laughed. As soon as he became serious again, they did exactly the same. It couldn’t have been any better done if it had been commanded by a movie-director in Hollywood.
    “How did you come into Holland? I mean without a passport? How did you pass the immigration and so?”
    “Oh, that? Oh, well, I just came in, that’s all there is to it.”
    “Exactly. That is what we want to know. How did you come in?”
    “How can a fellow come in? I came on a ship.”
    “What ship?”
    “Oh, you mean the ship? Well, she was it was — sure, it was the — the — yes, it was the , George Washington .”
    “So? On the George Washington ?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Sure? You are sure of that?”
    “Bless my grandmother’s soul.”
    “When?”
    “Oh, you mean when? Well, I don’t quite remember the exact day. Musta been six or nine weeks ago or so.”
    “And you came on the George Washington ?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “A rather mysterious ship, your George Washington . As far as I know, the George Washington has never yet come to Rotterdam.”
    “That’s not my fault, officer. I am not responsible for the ship.”
    “That’s all right. And so you have no passport? No sailor’s card? No sort of paper to show who you are? Nothing to identify you? Absolutely and definitely nothing? Nothing at all to show that you are an American?”
    “Evidently not, sir. What can I do about it? Certainly, my consul —”
    “As you have no papers and no proof, what do you expect your consul to do?”
    “I don’t know. That’s