weather, of getting away from this damned hole?"

Captain Goyles's kindly geniality returned to him.

"You see, sir," he said, "this is a very peculiar coast. We'd be all
right if we were once out, but getting away from it in a cockle-shell
like that--well, to be frank, sir, it wants doing."

I left Captain Goyles with the assurance that he would watch the weather
as a mother would her sleeping babe; it was his own simile, and it struck
me as rather touching. I saw him again at twelve o'clock; he was
watching it from the window of the "Chain and Anchor."

At five o'clock that evening a stroke of luck occurred; in the middle of
the High Street I met a couple of yachting friends, who had had to put in
by reason of a strained rudder. I told them my story, and they appeared
less surprised than amused. Captain Goyles and the two men were still
watching the weather. I ran into the "King's Head," and prepared
Ethelbertha. The four of us crept quietly down to the quay, where we
found our boat. Only the boy was on board; my two friends took charge of
the yacht, and by six o'clock we were scudding merrily up the coast.

We put in that night at Aldborough, and the next day worked up to
Yarmouth, where, as my friends had to leave, I decided to abandon the
yacht. We sold the stores by auction on Yarmouth sands early in the
morning. I made a loss, but had the satisfaction of "doing" Captain
Goyles. I left the _Rogue_ in charge of a local mariner, who, for a
couple of sovereigns, undertook to see to its return to Harwich; and we
came back to London by train. There may be yachts other than the
_Rogue_, and skippers other than Mr. Goyles, but that experience has
prejudiced me against both.

George also thought a yacht would be a good deal of responsibility, so we
dismissed the idea.

"What about the river?" suggested Harris.

"We have had some pleasant times on that."

George pulled in silence at his cigar, and I cracked another nut.

"The river is not what it used to be," said I; "I don't know what, but
there's a something--a dampness--about the river air that always starts
my lumbago."

"It's the same with me," said George. "I don't know how it is, but I
never can sleep now in the neighbourhood of the river. I spent a week at
Joe's place in the spring, and every night I woke up at seven o'clock and
never got a wink afterwards."

"I merely suggested it," observed Harris. "Personally, I don't think it
good