means--but
I'll get my Channel Pilot out of my cabin and give you the general idea.
I'm only too grateful to do anything to put your mind at ease.'

And so, perhaps, for another hour--he declined the drink--Channel Pilot
in hand, he navigated us round Ushant, and at my request up-channel to
Southampton, light by light, with explanations and reminiscences. I
professed myself soothed at last, and suggested bed.

'In a second,' said he. 'Now, you wouldn't think, would you'--he glanced
off the book toward my wildly swaying dressing-gown on the door--'that
I've been seeing things for the last half-hour? 'Fact is, I'm just on
the edge of 'em, skating on thin ice round the corner--nor'east as near
as nothing--where that dog's looking at me.'

'What's the dog like?' I asked.

'Ah, that _is_ comforting of you! Most men walk through 'em to show me
they aren't real. As if I didn't know! But _you're_ different. Anybody
could see that with half an eye.' He stiffened and pointed. 'Damn it
all! The dog sees it too with half an--Why, he knows you! Knows you
perfectly. D'you know _him_?'

'How can I tell if he isn't real?' I insisted.

'But you can! _You're_ all right. I saw that from the first. Don't go
back on me now or I shall go to pieces like the _Drummond Castle_. I beg
your pardon, old man; but, you see, you _do_ know the dog. I'll prove
it. What's that dog doing? Come on! _You_ know.' A tremor shook him, and
he put his hand on my knee, and whispered with great meaning: 'I'll
letter or halve it with you. There! You begin.'

'S,' said I to humour him, for a dog would most likely be standing or
sitting, or may be scratching or sniffling or staring.

'Q,' he went on, and I could feel the heat of his shaking hand.

'U,' said I. There was no other letter possible; but I was shaking too.

'I.'

'N.'

'T-i-n-g,' he ran out. 'There! That proves it. I knew you knew him. You
don't know what a relief that is. Between ourselves, old man, he--he's
been turning up lately a--a damn sight more often than I cared for. And
a squinting dog--a dog that squints! I mean that's a bit _too_ much.
Eh? What?' He gulped and half rose, and I thought that the full tide of
delirium would be on him in another sentence.

'Not a bit of it,' I said as a last chance, with my hand over the
bellpush. 'Why, you've just proved that I know him; so there are two of
us in the game, anyhow.'

'By Jove! that _is_ an idea! Of course there are. I knew you'd