ere and
wrestles with you. I can't go to sea with the bummer alone; it's not
possible. Go drown yourself, and there goes my last chance--the last
chance of a poor miserable beast, earning a crust to feed his family. I
can't do nothing but sail ships, and I've no papers. And here I get a
chance, and you go back on me! Ah, you've no family, and that's where
the trouble is!"

"I have indeed," said Herrick.

"Yes, I know," said the captain, "you think so. But no man's got a
family till he's got children. It's only the kids count. There's
something about the little shavers ... I can't talk of them. And if you
thought a cent about this father that I hear you talk of, or that
sweetheart you were writing to this morning, you would feel like me. You
would say, What matter laws, and God, and that? My folks are hard up, I
belong to them, I'll get them bread, or, by God! I'll get them wealth,
if I have to burn down London for it. That's what you would say. And
I'll tell you more: your heart is saying so this living minute. I can
see it in your face. You're thinking, Here's poor friendship for the man
I've starved along of, and as for the girl that I set up to be in love
with, here's a mighty limp kind of a love that won't carry me as far as
'most any man would go for a demijohn of whisky. There's not much
_ro_mance to that love, anyway; it's not the kind they carry on about in
song-books. But what's the good of my carrying on talking, when it's all
in your inside as plain as print? I put the question to you once for
all. Are you going to desert me in my hour of need?--you know if I've
deserted you--or will you give me your hand, and try a fresh deal, and
go home (as like as not) a millionaire? Say No, and God pity me! Say
Yes, and I'll make the little ones pray for you every night on their
bended knees. 'God bless Mr. Herrick:' that's what they'll say, one
after the other, the old girl sitting there holding stakes at the foot
of the bed, and the damned little innocents ..." he broke off. "I don't
often rip out about the kids," he said; "but when I do, there's
something fetches loose."

"Captain," said Herrick faintly, "is there nothing else?"

"I'll prophesy if you like," said the captain with renewed vigour.
"Refuse this, because you think yourself too honest, and before a
month's out you'll be gaoled for a sneak-thief. I give you the word
fair. I can see it, Herrick, if you can't; you're breaking down. Don't
think, if you re