is what you mean, but perfectly serious, and
I must have my boat."

"Won't another do as well?"

"No, it will not." I felt in my pockets and found two sovereigns and
a few shillings. "Look here," I said, "I will give you two pounds if
you get this boat out for me."

This conquered his reluctance. He stared for a moment as I mentioned
the amount, and then hastily deciding that I was stark mad, but that
it was none of his business, put on his hat and led the way down to
his boat-yard.

Stumbling in the uncertain light over innumerable timbers, spars, and
old oars, we reached the shed at length and together managed, after
much delay, to get out the light boat and let her down to the water.
I gave him the two sovereigns as well as the few shillings that
remained in my pocket, and as I descended, reflected grimly that
after all they were better in his possession; the man who should find
my body would have so much the less spoil. We had scarcely spoken
whilst we were getting the boat out, and what words we used were
uttered in that whisper which night always enforces; but as I
clambered down (for the tide was now far out) and Bagnell passed down
the sculls, he asked--

"When will you be back, sir?"

The same question! I gave it the same answer. "Not before morning,"
I said, and with a few strokes was out upon the tide and pulling down
the river. I saw him standing there above in the moonlight, still
wondering, until he faded in the dim haze behind. My boat was a
light Thames dingey, so that although I felt the tide running up
against me, it nevertheless made fair progress. What decided me to
pull against the tide rather than float quietly upwards I do not know
to this day. So deadened and vague was all my thought, that it
probably never occurred to me to correct the direction in which the
first few strokes had taken me. I was conscious of nothing but a row
of lights gliding past me on either hand, of here and there a tower
or tall building, that stood up for an instant against the sky and
then swam slowly out of sight, of the creaking of my sculls in the
ungreased rowlocks, and, above all, the white shimmer of the moon
following my boat as it swung downwards.

I remember now that, in a childish way, I tried to escape this
persistent brilliance that still clung to my boat's side with every
stroke I took; that somehow a dull triumph possessed me when for a
moment I slipped beneath the shadow of a bridge, o