. Some of them were known
to me by sight and even by name, for Cornelys Jensen had culled them
from the sea-dogs and sea-devils who drank and diced at the Skull and
Spectacles. That was not much; many good seamen were familiars of the
Skull and Spectacles. But what I misliked in them was the regard they
seemed to pay to the deeds and words of Cornelys Jensen. It was but
natural, indeed, that they should pay him regard, seeing that he was
the second in command after Captain Amber. But it seemed to me then, or
perhaps I imagine--judging by the light of later times--that it seemed
to me then that their behaviour showed that they looked upon Jensen
rather than my Captain as the centre of authority in the ship. Certainly
most of them were more of the kidney of Cornelys Jensen than of
Marmaduke Amber.

I ventured to break something of my thought to Captain Amber, but he
laughed at me for my pains, saying that Jensen was a proper man and very
trustworthy, and a man with a better eye for a good seaman than any
other man in the kingdom. So I had no more to say, and Cornelys Jensen
went his own way and collected his own following unhindered.

Whatever I might think of the crew, there was but one thought for the
ship. A finer than the Royal Christopher at that time I had never seen
of her kind and size. She was a large ship of the corvette kind, with
something of the carack and something of the polacca about her. We boast
greatly of our progress in the art of putting tall ships together, and,
if we go on at the rate at which, according to some among us, we are
going, Heaven only knows where it will end, or with what kind of marine
monsters we shall people the great deep. But I cannot think that we
have done or ever shall do much better in shipbuilding than we did in
the days when I was young.

The hands of the clock wheeled in their circle, and the day came when
all was ready and we were to sail.

I was leaning over the side, looking at the downs and the town where I
had lived all my life, and which, perhaps, I might never see again. My
mother was by my side, and we were talking together as people talk who
love each other when a parting is at hand. All of a sudden I became
aware of a boat that was pulling across the water in the direction of
our ship. It contained a man and a woman, and when it came alongside I
saw who the man and the woman were, and saw that they were known to me;
and for a moment my heart stood still, and I