y, save that, although it was a
warm evening in August, he wore a thick pea-jacket, and had turned
the collar up about his ears. Nor (if you know Cornish fishermen)
was there anything very unusual in what he did, albeit a stranger
might well have thought it frantic.

For some time he walked to and fro, threading his way in and out of
the groups of men, walking much faster than they--at the best they
were strolling--muttering the while with his head sunk low in his
jacket collar, turning sharply when he reached the edge of the quay,
or pausing a moment or two, and staring gloomily at the water.
The men watched him, yet not very curiously. They knew what was
coming.

Of a sudden he halted and began to preach. He preached of Redemption
from Sin, of the Blood of the Lamb, of the ineffable bliss of
Salvation. His voice rose in an agony on the gentle twilight: it
could be heard--entreating, invoking, persuading, wrestling--far
across the harbour. The men listened quite attentively until the
time came for getting aboard. Then they stole away by twos and
threes down the quay steps. Meanwhile, and all the while,
preparations on the boats had been going forward.

He was left alone at length. Even the children had lost interest in
him, and had run off to watch the boats as they crept out on the
tide. He ceased abruptly, came across to the bench where I sat
smoking my pipe, and dropped exhausted beside me. The fire had died
out of him. He eyed me almost shamefacedly at first, by and by more
boldly.

"I would give, sir," said Pilot Matthey, "I would give half my
worldly goods to lead you to the Lord."

"I believe you," said I. "To my knowledge you have often risked more
than that--your life--to save men from drowning. But tell me--you
that for twenty minutes have been telling these fellows how Christ
feels towards them--how can you know? It is hard enough, surely, to
get inside any man's feelings. How can you pretend to know what
Christ feels, or felt--for an instance, in the Judgment Hall, when
Peter denied?"

"Once I did, sir," said Pilot Matthey, smoothing the worn knees of
his trousers. "It was just that. I'll tell you:"

"It happened eighteen or twenty years ago, on the old _Early and
Late_--yes, twenty years come Christmas, for I mind that my eldest
daughter was expectin' her first man-child, just then. You saw him
get aboard just now, praise the Lord! But at the time we was all
nervous about it