Читать книгу The Young Wireless Operator—With the U. S. Secret Service. Winning his way in the Secret Service онлайн

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Presently men began to gather on the pier again. Some of them came up over the side of the pier, from canal-boats in the dock. Others came from shore. Willie guessed at once that they were barge captains. At least, such men are called captains. They live on the barges with their families and look after the craft for the owners. Usually they are a rough set, and these particular canal-boat captains now gathering on the pier were no exception. Willie looked at them closely and decided that he would not want to be at their mercy if they were angry at him. They looked like a desperate lot, and Willie could not help feeling that they must be as desperate as they looked. Certainly they led irresponsible lives, for they were here to-day and gone to-morrow, their homes being wherever fate and a cargo took their craft. How easy it would be for them to make away with an enemy. The water-front was dark and the rushing tide so near at hand. A silent blow, a quick push over the end of a pier, and there was the end of some one. And more than once, Willie knew, that had been the end of some one. He had read of such cases and heard of others.