ho had got into small boats to bale them out with rusty cans.
From some of these loungers, after much shouting and contradictory
information, the _Seamew_, discovered her destination and was soon fast
alongside.

The cargo--a very small one--was out by three o'clock that afternoon,
and the crew, having replaced the hatches and cleaned up, went ashore
together, after extending an invitation to Henry--which was coldly
declined--to go with them.

The skipper was already ashore, and the boy, after enduring for some
time the witticisms of the mate, on the subject of apples, went too.

For some time he wandered aimlessly about the town, with his hands in
his pockets. The season was drawing to an end, but a few holiday-makers
were lounging about on the parade, or venturing carefully along the
dreary breakwater to get the full benefit of the sea air. Idly watching
these and other objects of interest on the sea-shore, the boy drifted on
until he found himself at the adjoining watering-place of Overcourt.

The parade ended in two flights of steps, one of which led to the sands
and the other to the road and the cliffs above. For people who cared
for neither, thoughtful local authorities had placed a long seat, and
on this Henry placed himself and sat for some time, regarding with the
lenity of age the erratic sports of the children below. He had sat there
for some time when he became idly interested in the movements of an
old man walking along the sands to the steps. Arrived at the foot he
disappeared from sight, then a huge hand gripped the handrail, and a
peaked cloth cap was revealed to the suddenly interested Henry, for the
face of the old man was the face of the well-thumbed photograph in the
foc'sle.

Unconscious of the wild excitement in the breast of the small boy on the
seat, the old man paused to take breath for the next flight.

"Have you--got such a thing as a--as a match--about you?" said Henry,
trying to speak calmly, but failing.

"You're over-young to smoke," said the old man, turning round and
regarding him.

At any other time, with any other person, Henry's retort to this would
have been rude, but the momentous events which depended on his civility
restrained him.

"I find it soothing," he said with much gravity, "if I get overworked or
worried."

The old man regarded him with unfeigned astonishment, a grim smile
lurking at the corners of his well-hidden mouth.

"If you were my boy," he said shortly