up in one of the lower reaches of the Thames
off an apparently uninhabited shore, near some sort of inlet where
nothing but two anchored barges flying a red flag could be seen, Powell
was too busy to think of the lady `that mustn't be disturbed,' or of his
captain--or of anything else unconnected with his immediate duties. In
fact, he had no occasion to go on the poop, or even look that way much;
but while the ship was about to anchor, casting his eyes in that
direction, he received an absurd impression that his captain (he was up
there, of course) was sitting on both sides of the aftermost skylight at
once. He was too occupied to reflect on this curious delusion, this
phenomenon of seeing double as though he had had a drop too much. He
only smiled at himself.

As often happens after a grey daybreak the sun had risen in a warm and
glorious splendour above the smooth immense gleam of the enlarged
estuary. Wisps of mist floated like trails of luminous dust, and in the
dazzling reflections of water and vapour, the shores had the murky
semi-transparent darkness of shadows cast mysteriously from below.
Powell, who had sailed out of London all his young seaman's life, told
me that it was then, in a moment of entranced vision an hour or so after
sunrise, that the river was revealed to him for all time, like a fair
face often seen before, which is suddenly perceived to be the expression
of an inner and unsuspected beauty, of that something unique and only
its own which rouses a passion of wonder and fidelity and an
unappeasable memory of its charm. The hull of the _Ferndale_, swung
head to the eastward, caught the light, her tall spars and rigging
steeped in a bath of red-gold, from the water-line full of glitter to
the trucks slight and gleaming against the delicate expanse of the blue.

"Time we had a mouthful to eat," said a voice at his side. It was Mr
Franklin, the chief mate, with his head sunk between his shoulders, and
melancholy eyes. "Let the men have their breakfast, bo'sun," he went
on, "and have the fire out in the galley in half an hour at the latest,
so that we can call these barges of explosives alongside. Come along,
young man. I don't know your name. Haven't seen the captain, to speak
to, since yesterday afternoon when he rushed off to pick up a second
mate somewhere. How did he get you?"

Young Powell, a little shy notwithstanding the friendly disposition of
the other, answered him smilingly, awa