t the fish davit.

These, properly speaking, were the very last moments of ease he was to
know on board the Sofala. All the instants that came after were to be
pregnant with purpose and intolerable with perplexity. No more idle,
random thoughts; the discovery would put them on the rack, till
sometimes he wished to goodness he had been fool enough not to make
it at all. And yet, if his chance to get on rested on the discovery of
"something wrong," he could not have hoped for a greater stroke of luck.

X

The knowledge was too disturbing, really. There was "something wrong"
with a vengeance, and the moral certitude of it was at first simply
frightful to contemplate. Sterne had been looking aft in a mood so idle,
that for once he was thinking no harm of anyone. His captain on the
bridge presented himself naturally to his sight. How insignificant, how
casual was the thought that had started the train of discovery--like
an accidental spark that suffices to ignite the charge of a tremendous
mine!

Caught under by the breeze, the awnings of the foredeck bellied upwards
and collapsed slowly, and above their heavy flapping the gray stuff of
Captain Whalley's roomy coat fluttered incessantly around his arms and
trunk. He faced the wind in full light, with his great silvery beard
blown forcibly against his chest; the eyebrows overhung heavily the
shadows whence his glance appeared to be staring ahead piercingly.
Sterne could just detect the twin gleam of the whites shifting under the
shaggy arches of the brow. At short range these eyes, for all the man's
affable manner, seemed to look you through and through. Sterne never
could defend himself from that feeling when he had occasion to speak
with his captain. He did not like it. What a big heavy man he appeared
up there, with that little shrimp of a Serang in close attendance--as
was usual in this extraordinary steamer! Confounded absurd custom that.
He resented it. Surely the old fellow could have looked after his ship
without that loafing native at his elbow. Sterne wriggled his shoulders
with disgust. What was it? Indolence or what?

That old skipper must have been growing lazy for years. They all grew
lazy out East here (Sterne was very conscious of his own unimpaired
activity); they got slack all over. But he towered very erect on the
bridge; and quite low by his side, as you see a small child looking over
the edge of a table, the battered soft hat and the brown face of