This is a sprightly comic short from the great W. W. Jacobs, the author better known for 'The Monkey's Paw' but who spent much of his career making readers laugh. The tale unfolds aboard a ship docked in London, where Uncle Dick has caught the eye of the formidable Mrs. Muffit, a widow with a reputation for being thoroughly disagreeable. The ship's captain and his cronies decide to intervene, hatching a scheme to frighten Uncle Dick away by hiring a character called Artful 'Arry to pose as the widow's jealous husband. What follows is a magnificently botched conspiracy of errors, with the conspirators accidentally frightening each other more than they frighten their target. Jacobs's genius lies in his comic timing and in the salty vernacular of his sailors, the kind of dialogue that sounds like it was transcribed from a dockside pub. The story endures because it's a farce about meddling, about men convinced they know what's best for their friends, and the chaos that ensues when plans meet reality. It is for readers who want a quick, warm, mildly absurd diversion from the early twentieth century, the literary equivalent of a music hall comedy.
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