t game for the other thing," he confided to
me. "He hasn't got the nerve for it. However, I ain't going to lose
sight of them two till they go out through the gate. That little chap's
a devil. He's got the nerve for anything, only he hasn't got the muscle.
Well! Well! You've had a chance to get in with a whole skin and with
all your things."

"I was incredulous a little. It seemed impossible that after getting
ready with so much hurry and inconvenience I should have lost my chance
of a start in life from such a cause. I asked:

"Does that sort of thing happen often so near the dock gates?"

"Often! No! Of course not often. But it ain't often either that a man
comes along with a cabload of things to join a ship at this time of
night. I've been in the dock police thirteen years and haven't seen it
done once."

"Meantime we followed my sea-chest which was being carried down a sort of
deep narrow lane, separating two high warehouses, between honest Ted and
his little devil of a pal who had to keep up a trot to the other's
stride. The skirt of his soldier's coat floating behind him nearly swept
the ground so that he seemed to be running on castors. At the corner of
the gloomy passage a rigged jib boom with a dolphin-striker ending in an
arrow-head stuck out of the night close to a cast iron lamp-post. It was
the quay side. They set down their load in the light and honest Ted
asked hoarsely:

"Where's your ship, guv'nor?"

"I didn't know. The constable was interested at my ignorance.

"Don't know where your ship is?" he asked with curiosity. "And you the
second officer! Haven't you been working on board of her?"

"I couldn't explain that the only work connected with my appointment was
the work of chance. I told him briefly that I didn't know her at all. At
this he remarked:

"So I see. Here she is, right before you. That's her."

"At once the head-gear in the gas light inspired me with interest and
respect; the spars were big, the chains and ropes stout and the whole
thing looked powerful and trustworthy. Barely touched by the light her
bows rose faintly alongside the narrow strip of the quay; the rest of her
was a black smudge in the darkness. Here I was face to face with my
start in life. We walked in a body a few steps on a greasy pavement
between her side and the towering wall of a warehouse and I hit my shins
cruelly against the end of the gangway. The constable hailed her quietly
i