evanescent flash of the
eyes.... No, I couldn't do it. And I couldn't forego the exquisite
seduction of a future glowing with the iridescent colours of romantic
folly....

"And so," said Mr. Spenlove, after one of his pauses, "I went."

CHAPTER VIII

And for those who make a hobby of the irony of fate, I remember that but
for the innocent and haphazard intervention of a perfectly irrelevant
individual, I shouldn't have been able to get ashore at all. I woke
early. For some mysterious reason connected with tonnage, the old
_Manola_ had a small bathroom at the after end of the bridge deck, a
most unusual appurtenance in a tramp steamer of her day, as some of you
fellows know well enough. I had fixed up a contraption by which I could
pump sea water through a home-made shower. I was in this place having a
wash down and towelling vigorously when I heard the steward talking to
the cook outside the porthole. He was saying that he was going ashore to
the market to get some fresh green stuff and the cook was to tell the
old man that he would be back by eight o'clock. The steward, an
extremely quiet and modest creature with the ferocious name of
Tonderbeg, was standing close by, and the blue wreathes from his
cigarette curled into the port. He looked up and saw me, making a
slight bow and smile, and raising his hand in an automatic way to the
salute.

"'Goot morning, Mister Chief,' he said. 'A fine morning, Sir.' I
conceded this and asked him if it was far to the market.

"'Not far. Just a nice walk for a morning like dis, Sir. A very
interesting place, the market. In the Old Town.'

"'Well', I said, 'if you'll wait a few minutes, I'll take a walk up
there with you.'

"His good-looking blond features became suffused with a warm
gratification and his Teutonic voice went back into his throat, as it
were.

"'W'y,' he announced, impressively, 'it would be a pleasure, Mister
Chief. I'll chust get de sailor wid de bag.' And he disappeared.

"And I was mysteriously elated. It is useless to attempt any analysis of
those fugitive gleams of the future which occasionally distract our
minds. Nevertheless I recall it now with irresistible conviction--I was
mysteriously elated. I filled my case with cigarettes, took my cap and
stick, went back for a handkerchief, and slipped a couple of sovereigns
into my pocket with the idea, I suppose, of purchasing fruit. I found my
friend Tonderbeg standing by the gangway talking to the