he hurried up the
gangway.

Whereas the black mate struck people as deliberate, and strangely
stately in his gait for a man in the prime of life, this white-headed
chap seemed the most wonderfully alert of old men. I don't suppose
Bunter was any quicker on his pins than before. It was the colour of the
hair that made all the difference in one's judgment.

The same with his eyes. Those eyes, that looked at you so steely, so
fierce, and so fascinating out of a bush of a buccaneer's black hair,
now had an innocent almost boyish expression in their good-humoured
brightness under those white eyebrows.

I led him without any delay into Mrs. Bunter's private sitting-room.
After she had dropped a tear over the late cannibal, given a hug to her
Winston, and told him that he must grow his moustache again, the dear
lady tucked her feet upon the sofa, and I got out of Bunter's way.

He started at once to pace the room, waving his long arms. He worked
himself into a regular frenzy, and tore Johns limb from limb many times
over that evening.

"Fell down? Of course I fell down, by slipping backwards on that fool's
patent brass plates. 'Pon my word, I had been walking that poop in
charge of the ship, and I didn't know whether I was in the Indian Ocean
or in the moon. I was crazy. My head spun round and round with sheer
worry. I had made my last application of your chemist's wonderful
stuff." (This to me.) "All the store of bottles you gave me got smashed
when those drawers fell out in the last gale. I had been getting some
dry things to change, when I heard the cry: 'All hands on deck!' and
made one jump of it, without even pushing them in properly. Ass! When I
came back and saw the broken glass and the mess, I felt ready to faint.

"No; look here--deception is bad; but not to be able to keep it up after
one has been forced into it. You know that since I've been squeezed
out of the Western Ocean packets by younger men, just on account of my
grizzled muzzle--you know how much chance I had to ever get a ship. And
not a soul to turn to. We have been a lonely couple, we two--she threw
away everything for me--and to see her want a piece of dry bread------"

He banged with his fist fit to split the Frenchman's table in two.

"I would have turned a sanguinary pirate for her, let alone cheating
my way into a berth by dyeing my hair. So when you came to me with your
chemist's wonderful stuff------"

He checked himself.

"By the way