mind."

He started the screw, and kept the launch alongside the wharf while
Merriman cast off first the bow and then the stern ropes. Then, steering
out towards the middle of the river, he swung round and they began to
slip rapidly downstream with the current.

After passing beneath the huge mass of the railway bridge they got a
better view of the city, its rather unimposing buildings clustering on
the great curve of the river to the left, and with the fine stone bridge
over which they had driven on the previous evening stretching across
from bank to bank in front of them. Slipping through one of its
seventeen arches, they passed the long lines of quays with their
attendant shipping, until gradually the houses got thinner and they
reached the country beyond.

About a dozen miles below the town Hilliard shut off the engines,
and when the launch had come to rest on the swift current they had a
glorious dip--in turn. Then the odor of hot ham mingled in the cabin
with those of paraffin and burned petrol, and they had an even more
glorious breakfast. Finally the engines were restarted, and they pressed
steadily down the ever-widening estuary.

About nine they got their first glimpse of the sea horizon, and, shortly
after, a slight heave gave Merriman a foretaste of what he must soon
expect. The sea was like a mill pond, but as they came out from behind
the Pointe de Grave they began to feel the effect of the long, slow
ocean swell. As soon as he dared Hilliard turned southwards along the
coast. This brought the swells abeam, but so large were they in relation
to the launch that she hardly rolled, but was raised and lowered bodily
on an almost even keel. Though Merriman was not actually ill, he was
acutely unhappy and experienced a thrill of thanksgiving when, about
five o'clock, they swung round east and entered the estuary of the
Lesque.

"Must go slowly here," Hilliard explained, as the banks began to draw
together. "There's no sailing chart of this river, and we shall have to
feel our way up."

For some two miles they passed through a belt of sand dunes, great
yellow hillocks shaded with dark green where grasses had seized a
precarious foothold. Behind these the country grew flatter, and small,
blighted-looking shrubs began to appear, all leaning eastwards in
witness of the devastating winds which blew in from the sea. Farther on
these gave place to stunted trees, and by the time they had gone ten or
twelve miles