grave. Only, here and there in the crypt, there
was a rustle and scurry and some crowing of poultry; and from behind the
house with the verandahs, he saw smoke arise and heard the crackling of
a fire.

The stone houses were nearest him upon his right. The first was locked;
in the second, he could dimly perceive, through a window, a certain
accumulation of pearl-shell piled in the far end; the third, which stood
gaping open on the afternoon, seized on the mind of Herrick with its
multiplicity and disorder of romantic things. Therein were cables,
windlasses and blocks of every size and capacity; cabin windows and
ladders; rusty tanks, a companion hutch; a binnacle with its brass
mountings and its compass idly pointing, in the confusion and dusk of
that shed, to a forgotten pole; ropes, anchors, harpoons, a blubber
dipper of copper, green with years, a steering wheel, a tool chest with
the vessel's name upon the top, the Asia: a whole curiosity-shop of sea
curios, gross and solid, heavy to lift, ill to break, bound with brass
and shod with iron. Two wrecks at the least must have contributed to
this random heap of lumber; and as Herrick looked upon it, it seemed to
him as if the two ships' companies were there on guard, and he heard
the tread of feet and whisperings, and saw with the tail of his eye the
commonplace ghosts of sailor men.

This was not merely the work of an aroused imagination, but had
something sensible to go upon; sounds of a stealthy approach were no
doubt audible; and while he still stood staring at the lumber, the voice
of his host sounded suddenly, and with even more than the customary
softness of enunciation, from behind.

'Junk,', it said, 'only old junk! And does Mr Hay find a parable?'

'I find at least a strong impression,' replied Herrick, turning quickly,
lest he might be able to catch, on the face of the speaker, some
commentary on the words.

Attwater stood in the doorway, which he almost wholly filled; his hands
stretched above his head and grasping the architrave. He smiled when
their eyes Met, but the expression was inscrutable.

'Yes, a powerful impression. You are like me; nothing so affecting as
ships!' said he. 'The ruins of an empire would leave me frigid, when a
bit of an old rail that an old shellback leaned on in the middle watch,
would bring me up all standing. But come, let's see some more of the
island. It's all sand and coral and palm trees; but there's a kind of a
quaint