uggle beat the steerage also. Then they
regaled us with iced-drinks and cigars to celebrate the victory.

I was standing at the edge of the crowd of spectators, when my eye
caught a figure which seemed to have little interest in our games. A
large man in clerical clothes was sitting on a deck-chair reading a
book. There was nothing novel about the stranger, and I cannot explain
the impulse which made me wish to see his face. I moved a few steps up
the deck, and then I saw that his skin was black. I went a little
farther, and suddenly he raised his eyes from his book and looked
round. It was the face of the man who had terrified me years ago on the
Kirkcaple shore.

I spent the rest of the day in a brown study. It was clear to me that
some destiny had prearranged this meeting. Here was this man
travelling prosperously as a first-class passenger with all the
appurtenances of respectability. I alone had seen him invoking strange
gods in the moonlight, I alone knew of the devilry in his heart, and I
could not but believe that some day or other there might be virtue in
that knowledge.

The second engineer and I had made friends, so I got him to consult the
purser's list for the name of my acquaintance. He was down as the Rev.
John Laputa, and his destination was Durban. The next day being Sunday,
who should appear to address us steerage passengers but the black
minister. He was introduced by the captain himself, a notably pious
man, who spoke of the labours of his brother in the dark places of
heathendom. Some of us were hurt in our pride in being made the target
of a black man's oratory. Especially Mr Henriques, whose skin spoke of
the tar-brush, protested with oaths against the insult. Finally he sat
down on a coil of rope, and spat scornfully in the vicinity of the
preacher.

For myself I was intensely curious, and not a little impressed. The
man's face was as commanding as his figure, and his voice was the most
wonderful thing that ever came out of human mouth. It was full and
rich, and gentle, with the tones of a great organ. He had none of the
squat and preposterous negro lineaments, but a hawk nose like an Arab,
dark flashing eyes, and a cruel and resolute mouth. He was black as my
hat, but for the rest he might have sat for a figure of a Crusader. I
do not know what the sermon was about, though others told me that it
was excellent. All the time I watched him, and kept saying to myself,
'You hunte