them, and so we hove it taut again,
after which they got about me once more, questioning; for so much seemed
to have happened in the seven years in which they had been imprisoned.
And then, after a while, I turned-to and questioned them on such points
as I had neglected to ask Mistress Madison, and they discovered to me
their terror and sickness of the weed-continent, its desolation and
horror, and the dread which had beset them at the thought that they
should all of them come to their ends without sight of their homes and
countrymen.

Now, about this time, I became conscious that I had grown very empty; for
I had come off to the hulk before we had made our dinner, and had been in
such interest since, that the thought of food had escaped me; for I had
seen none eating in the hulk, they, without doubt, having dined earlier
than my coming. But now, being made aware of my state by the grumbling of
my stomach, I inquired whether there was any food to be had at such a
time, and, at that, one of the men ran to tell the woman in the galley
that I had missed my dinner, at which she made much ado, and set-to and
prepared me a very good meal, which she carried aft and set out for me in
the saloon, and after that she sent me down to it.

Presently, when I had come near to being comfortable, there chanced a
lightsome step upon the floor behind me, and, turning, I discovered that
Mistress Madison was surveying me with a roguish and somewhat amused air.
At that, I got hastily to my feet; but she bade me sit down, and
therewith she took a seat opposite, and so bantered me with a gentle
playfulness that was not displeasing to me, and at which I played so good
a second as I had ability. Later, I fell to questioning her, and, among
other matters, discovered that it was she who acted as scribe for the
people in the hulk, at which I told her that I had done likewise for
those on the island. After that, our talk became somewhat personal, and I
learnt that she was near on to nineteen years of age, whereat I told her
that I had passed my twenty-third. And so we chatted on, until,
presently, it occurred to me that I had better be preparing to return to
the island, and I rose to my feet with this intention; yet feeling that I
had been very much happier to have stayed, the which I thought, for a
moment, had not been displeasing to her, and this I imagined, noting
somewhat in her eyes when I made mention that I must be gone. Yet it may
be that I