red tint of his clear-cut face with trim short black whiskers under
a cap of curly iron-grey hair was the only warm spot in the dinginess of
that room cooled by the cheerless tablecloth. We knew him already by
sight as the owner of a little five-ton cutter, which he sailed alone
apparently, a fellow yachtsman in the unpretending band of fanatics who
cruise at the mouth of the Thames. But the first time he addressed the
waiter sharply as `steward' we knew him at once for a sailor as well as
a yachtsman.

Presently he had occasion to reprove that same waiter for the slovenly
manner in which the dinner was served. He did it with considerable
energy and then turned to us.

"If we at sea," he declared, "went about our work as people ashore high
and low go about theirs we should never make a living. No one would
employ us. And moreover no ship navigated and sailed in the
happy-go-lucky manner people conduct their business on shore would ever
arrive into port."

Since he had retired from the sea he had been astonished to discover
that the educated people were not much better than the others. No one
seemed to take any proper pride in his work: from plumbers who were
simply thieves to, say, newspaper men (he seemed to think them a
specially intellectual class) who never by any chance gave a correct
version of the simplest affair. This universal inefficiency of what he
called "the shore gang" he ascribed in general to the want of
responsibility and to a sense of security.

"They see," he went on, "that no matter what they do this tight little
island won't turn turtle with them or spring a leak and go to the bottom
with their wives and children."

From this point the conversation took a special turn relating
exclusively to sea-life. On that subject he got quickly in touch with
Marlow who in his time had followed the sea. They kept up a lively
exchange of reminiscences while I listened. They agreed that the
happiest time in their lives was as youngsters in good ships, with no
care in the world but not to lose a watch below when at sea and not a
moment's time in going ashore after work hours when in harbour. They
agreed also as to the proudest moment they had known in that calling
which is never embraced on rational and practical grounds, because of
the glamour of its romantic associations. It was the moment when they
had passed successfully their first examination and left the seamanship
Examiner with the little