quality
at sea. His natural apprehensiveness of danger was tempered by a strong
instinct of what was possible in an emergency. He was one of those
mariners who will face risks to a point perfectly well known to
themselves, and who generally manage to come successfully out of every
peril. Every certainty which a man can command, dealing with so fickle
an element as the sea, he possessed. Sieur Clubin, moreover, was a
renowned swimmer; he was one of that race of men broken into the
buffeting of the waves, who can remain as long as they please in the
water--who can start from the Havre-des-Pas at Jersey, double the
Colettes, swim round the Hermitage and Castle Elizabeth, and return in
two hours to the point from which they started. He came from Torteval,
where he had the reputation of often having swum across the passage so
much dreaded, from the Hanway rocks to the point of Pleinmont.

One circumstance which had recommended Sieur Clubin to Mess Lethierry
more than any other, was his having judged correctly the character of
Rantaine. He had pointed out to Lethierry the dishonesty of the man, and
had said "Rantaine will rob you." His prediction was verified. More than
once--in matters, it is true, not very important--Mess Lethierry had put
his ever-scrupulous honesty to the proof; and he freely communicated
with him on the subject of his affairs. Mess Lethierry used to say, "A
good conscience expects to be treated with perfect confidence."

X

LONG YARNS

Mess Lethierry, for the sake of his own ease, always wore his seafaring
clothes, and preferred his tarpaulin overcoat to his pilot jacket.
Deruchette felt vexed, occasionally, about this peculiarity. Nothing is
prettier than a pouting beauty. She laughed and scolded. "My dear
father," she would say, "what a smell of pitch!" and she would give him
a gentle tap upon his broad shoulders.

This good old seaman had gathered from his voyages many wonderful
stories. He had seen at Madagascar birds' feathers, three of which
sufficed to make a roof of a house. He had seen in India, field sorrel,
the stalks of which were nine inches high. In New Holland he had seen
troops of turkeys and geese led about and guarded by a bird, like a
flock by a shepherd's dog; this bird was called the Agami. He had
visited elephants' cemeteries. In Africa, he had encountered gorillas, a
terrible species of man-monkey. He knew the ways of all the ape tribe,
from the wild dog-faced monkey,