cathing brightness; and as they
could only peer abroad from between closed lashes, the excess of light
seemed to be changed into a sinister darkness, comparable to that of a
thundercloud before it bursts.

The captain had come upon this errand for any one of a dozen reasons,
the last of which was desire for its success. Superstition rules all
men; semi-ignorant and gross natures, like that of Davis, it rules
utterly. For murder he had been prepared; but this horror of the
medicine in the bottle went beyond him, and he seemed to himself to be
parting the last strands that united him to God. The boat carried him
on to reprobation, to damnation; and he suffered himself to be carried
passively consenting, silently bidding farewell to his better self
and his hopes. Huish sat by his side in towering spirits that were not
wholly genuine. Perhaps as brave a man as ever lived, brave as a weasel,
he must still reassure himself with the tones of his own voice; he must
play his part to exaggeration, he must out-Herod Herod, insult all
that was respectable, and brave all that was formidable, in a kind of
desperate wager with himself.

'Golly, but it's 'ot!' said he. 'Cruel 'ot, I call it. Nice d'y to get
your gruel in! I s'y, you know, it must feel awf'ly peculiar to get
bowled over on a d'y like this. I'd rather 'ave it on a cowld and frosty
morning, wouldn't you? (Singing) "'Ere we go round the mulberry bush
on a cowld and frosty mornin'." (Spoken) Give you my word, I 'aven't
thought o' that in ten year; used to sing it at a hinfant school in
'Ackney, 'Ackney Wick it was. (Singing) "This is the way the tyler does,
the tyler does." (Spoken) Bloomin' 'umbug. 'Ow are you off now, for the
notion of a future styte? Do you cotton to the tea-fight views, or the
old red 'ot boguey business?'

'Oh, dry up!' said the captain.

'No, but I want to know,' said Huish. 'It's within the sp'ere of
practical politics for you and me, my boy; we may both be bowled over,
one up, t'other down, within the next ten minutes. It would be rather a
lark, now, if you only skipped across, came up smilin' t'other side,
and a hangel met you with a B. and S. under his wing. 'Ullo, you'd s'y:
come, I tyke this kind.'

The captain groaned. While Huish was thus airing and exercising his
bravado, the man at his side was actually engaged in prayer. Prayer,
what for? God knows. But out of his inconsistent, illogical, and
agitated spirit, a stream of supplication