J. J. Bell, Little Grey Ships — Traitor (1916)
“ Alcohol may blur and distort and stupefy a man's morality, but Hardy's drugs seemed to nullify. Carson, without being in the least grateful, accepted his help, statements, and promises, set what was left of his soul on a vision of five-pound notes, and simply obeyed, tremblingly at times, yet none the less implicitly, and with an extraordinary cunning and caution not of his real nature. ”
J. J. Bell, Little Grey Ships — Traitor (1916)
“ A common story—almost as common as whisky. And the uncertain temper developed about middle age, the unpunctuality, the frequent and gross inefficiency, had made his name a by-word among masters and foremen. Only the coming of war—and the coming of the man who called himself Hardy—had rendered his recent employment in the shipyard possible. The war created a place even for Carson, and Hardy, who worked in a neighbouring yard, with his infinite patience and watchfulness, and his mysterious drugs, made him sufficiently fit to fill it. ”
J. J. Bell, Little Grey Ships — Traitor (1916)
“ A long tale it would make to record the evil work done, bit by bit, under cover of honest labour in the bowels of that steel leviathan during those weeks of early spring—the preparing of the secret receptacle at the spot where he was legitimately employed in the beginning, the subsequent sneakings back to the spot, the awful risks of self-betrayal, of incurring the suspicions of his fellows. ”
