, mercilessly aroused poor Chips from the profound sleep that was
gradually clearing his muddled brain, and tongue-lashed the bewildered
man until he must have scarcely known whether he was upon his head or
his heels. Fortunately for the schoolmaster, Chips's indiscretion had
been a mild one indeed compared with those of the forecastle hands, and
he therefore accepted Wilde's rebukes with a tolerably good grace and in
silence; but Wilde was one of those enthusiasts who carry even their
virtues to excess, and his denunciations of Chips were of so virulent
and extravagant a character that they did more harm than good, and--as I
discovered later on--converted Tudsbery from a blindly faithful disciple
into a sullen, more than half-doubting, and reluctant follower.

The incident ended, as Polson had anticipated that it would, in all
hands coming on deck at the end of the first dogwatch, and clearing
their brains by plunging their heads into buckets of sea water, after
which the boatswain went forward and gave them all a mild and more than
half good-humoured dressing-down, at the same time telling them one or
two home truths in a tersely sarcastic strain that was far more
effective than Wilde's rabidly intolerant language, which lost its point
with those to whom it was addressed chiefly because of its violent
exaggeration, through which he contrived, in a few minutes, to lose a
measure of influence that it cost him months of strenuous endeavour to
regain only partially. The fact is that this incident, comparatively
trifling and harmless in its character as it was, led some of the men to
question whether they had not thrown off the mild and easy restraints of
lawful discipline, only to subject themselves to the grinding tyranny of
a single individual of impulsive temper and overbearing disposition.

The sun went down that evening in a sky that glowed like molten copper
and was streaked with long tatters of smoky-looking cloud, which seemed
to presage both a windy and a dark night, to my great anxiety; for the
ship was now navigating a comparatively restricted area of landlocked
sea, the chart of which was dotted--much too thickly for my peace of
mind--with dangers of various descriptions, the names of many of which,
when they bore any names at all, were coupled with that sinister caution
("P.D.") warning the mariner that the position, as laid down upon the
chart, was doubtful, and that therefore an especially good lookout mus