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381
"'
I
was
glad
,
of
course
,
"
he
threw
out
carelessly
,
with
his
mind
fixed
on
something
else
.
"
The
exposure
,
"
he
pronounced
slowly
,
and
lifted
his
head
.
"
Do
you
know
what
was
my
first
thought
when
I
heard
?
I
was
relieved
.
I
was
relieved
to
learn
that
those
shouts
--
did
I
tell
you
I
had
heard
shouts
?
No
?
Well
,
I
did
.
Shouts
for
help
...
blown
along
with
the
drizzle
.
Imagination
,
I
suppose
.
And
yet
I
can
hardly
...
How
stupid
...
The
others
did
not
.
I
asked
them
afterwards
.
They
all
said
No
.
No
?
And
I
was
hearing
them
even
then
!
I
might
have
known
--
but
I
did
n't
think
--
I
only
listened
.
382
Very
faint
screams
--
day
after
day
.
Then
that
little
half-caste
chap
here
came
up
and
spoke
to
me
.
'
The
Patna
...
French
gunboat
...
towed
successfully
to
Aden
...
Investigation
...
Marine
Office
...
Sailors
'
Home
...
arrangements
made
for
your
board
and
lodging
!
'
I
walked
along
with
him
,
and
I
enjoyed
the
silence
.
So
there
had
been
no
shouting
.
Imagination
.
I
had
to
believe
him
.
I
could
hear
nothing
any
more
.
I
wonder
how
long
I
could
have
stood
it
.
It
was
getting
worse
,
too
...
I
mean
--
louder
.
"
'
He
fell
into
thought
.
383
"'
And
I
had
heard
nothing
!
Well
--
so
be
it
.
But
the
lights
!
The
lights
did
go
!
We
did
not
see
them
.
They
were
not
there
.
If
they
had
been
,
I
would
have
swam
back
--
I
would
have
gone
back
and
shouted
alongside
--
I
would
have
begged
them
to
take
me
on
board
...
I
would
have
had
my
chance
...
You
doubt
me
?
...
How
do
you
know
how
I
felt
?
...
What
right
have
you
to
doubt
?
...
I
very
nearly
did
it
as
it
was
--
do
you
understand
?
"
His
voice
fell
.
"
There
was
not
a
glimmer
--
not
a
glimmer
,
"
he
protested
mournfully
.
"
Do
n't
you
understand
that
if
there
had
been
,
you
would
not
have
seen
me
here
?
You
see
me
--
and
you
doubt
.
"
Отключить рекламу
384
'
I
shook
my
head
negatively
.
This
question
of
the
lights
being
lost
sight
of
when
the
boat
could
not
have
been
more
than
a
quarter
of
a
mile
from
the
ship
was
a
matter
for
much
discussion
.
Jim
stuck
to
it
that
there
was
nothing
to
be
seen
after
the
first
shower
had
cleared
away
;
and
the
others
had
affirmed
the
same
thing
to
the
officers
of
the
Avondale
.
385
Of
course
people
shook
their
heads
and
smiled
.
One
old
skipper
who
sat
near
me
in
court
tickled
my
ear
with
his
white
beard
to
murmur
,
"
Of
course
they
would
lie
.
"
As
a
matter
of
fact
nobody
lied
;
not
even
the
chief
engineer
with
his
story
of
the
mast-head
light
dropping
like
a
match
you
throw
down
.
Not
consciously
,
at
least
.
A
man
with
his
liver
in
such
a
state
might
very
well
have
seen
a
floating
spark
in
the
corner
of
his
eye
when
stealing
a
hurried
glance
over
his
shoulder
.
They
had
seen
no
light
of
any
sort
though
they
were
well
within
range
,
and
they
could
only
explain
this
in
one
way
:
the
ship
had
gone
down
.
It
was
obvious
and
comforting
.
The
foreseen
fact
coming
so
swiftly
had
justified
their
haste
.
No
wonder
they
did
not
cast
about
for
any
other
explanation
.
Yet
the
true
one
was
very
simple
,
and
as
soon
as
Brierly
suggested
it
the
court
ceased
to
bother
about
the
question
.
If
you
remember
,
the
ship
had
been
stopped
,
and
was
lying
with
her
head
on
the
course
steered
through
the
night
,
with
her
stern
canted
high
and
her
bows
brought
low
down
in
the
water
through
the
filling
of
the
fore-compartment
.
Being
thus
out
of
trim
,
when
the
squall
struck
her
a
little
on
the
quarter
,
she
swung
head
to
wind
as
sharply
as
though
she
had
been
at
anchor
.
By
this
change
in
her
position
all
her
lights
were
in
a
very
few
moments
shut
off
from
the
boat
to
leeward
.
386
It
may
very
well
be
that
,
had
they
been
seen
,
they
would
have
had
the
effect
of
a
mute
appeal
--
that
their
glimmer
lost
in
the
darkness
of
the
cloud
would
have
had
the
mysterious
power
of
the
human
glance
that
can
awaken
the
feelings
of
remorse
and
pity
.
It
would
have
said
,
"
I
am
here
--
still
here
"
...
and
what
more
can
the
eye
of
the
most
forsaken
of
human
beings
say
?
But
she
turned
her
back
on
them
as
if
in
disdain
of
their
fate
:
she
had
swung
round
,
burdened
,
to
glare
stubbornly
at
the
new
danger
of
the
open
sea
which
she
so
strangely
survived
to
end
her
days
in
a
breaking-up
yard
,
as
if
it
had
been
her
recorded
fate
to
die
obscurely
under
the
blows
of
many
hammers
.
What
were
the
various
ends
their
destiny
provided
for
the
pilgrims
I
am
unable
to
say
;
but
the
immediate
future
brought
,
at
about
nine
o'clock
next
morning
,
a
French
gun-boat
homeward
bound
from
Reunion
.
The
report
of
her
commander
was
public
property
.
He
had
swept
a
little
out
of
his
course
to
ascertain
what
was
the
matter
with
that
steamer
floating
dangerously
by
the
head
upon
a
still
and
hazy
sea
.
There
was
an
ensign
,
union
down
,
flying
at
her
main
gaff
(
the
serang
had
the
sense
to
make
a
signal
of
distress
at
daylight
)
;
but
the
cooks
were
preparing
the
food
in
the
cooking-boxes
forward
as
usual
.
The
decks
were
packed
as
close
as
a
sheep-pen
:
there
were
people
perched
all
along
the
rails
,
jammed
on
the
bridge
in
a
solid
mass
;
hundreds
of
eyes
stared
,
and
not
a
sound
was
heard
when
the
gunboat
ranged
abreast
,
as
if
all
that
multitude
of
lips
had
been
sealed
by
a
spell
.
387
'
The
Frenchman
hailed
,
could
get
no
intelligible
reply
,
and
after
ascertaining
through
his
binoculars
that
the
crowd
on
deck
did
not
look
plague-stricken
,
decided
to
send
a
boat
.
Two
officers
came
on
board
,
listened
to
the
serang
,
tried
to
talk
with
the
Arab
,
could
n't
make
head
or
tail
of
it
:
but
of
course
the
nature
of
the
emergency
was
obvious
enough
.
They
were
also
very
much
struck
by
discovering
a
white
man
,
dead
and
curled
up
peacefully
on
the
bridge
.
"
Fort
intrigues
par
ce
cadavre
,
"
as
I
was
informed
a
long
time
after
by
an
elderly
French
lieutenant
whom
I
came
across
one
afternoon
in
Sydney
,
by
the
merest
chance
,
in
a
sort
of
cafe
,
and
who
remembered
the
affair
perfectly
.
Indeed
this
affair
,
I
may
notice
in
passing
,
had
an
extraordinary
power
of
defying
the
shortness
of
memories
and
the
length
of
time
:
it
seemed
to
live
,
with
a
sort
of
uncanny
vitality
,
in
the
minds
of
men
,
on
the
tips
of
their
tongues
.
I
've
had
the
questionable
pleasure
of
meeting
it
often
,
years
afterwards
,
thousands
of
miles
away
,
emerging
from
the
remotest
possible
talk
,
coming
to
the
surface
of
the
most
distant
allusions
.
Has
it
not
turned
up
to-night
between
us
?
And
I
am
the
only
seaman
here
.
I
am
the
only
one
to
whom
it
is
a
memory
.
And
yet
it
has
made
its
way
out
!
But
if
two
men
who
,
unknown
to
each
other
,
knew
of
this
affair
met
accidentally
on
any
spot
of
this
earth
,
the
thing
would
pop
up
between
them
as
sure
as
fate
,
before
they
parted
.
Отключить рекламу
388
I
had
never
seen
that
Frenchman
before
,
and
at
the
end
of
an
hour
we
had
done
with
each
other
for
life
:
he
did
not
seem
particularly
talkative
either
;
he
was
a
quiet
,
massive
chap
in
a
creased
uniform
,
sitting
drowsily
over
a
tumbler
half
full
of
some
dark
liquid
.
His
shoulder-straps
were
a
bit
tarnished
,
his
clean-shaved
cheeks
were
large
and
sallow
;
he
looked
like
a
man
who
would
be
given
to
taking
snuff
--
do
n't
you
know
?
I
wo
n't
say
he
did
;
but
the
habit
would
have
fitted
that
kind
of
man
.
It
all
began
by
his
handing
me
a
number
of
Home
News
,
which
I
did
n't
want
,
across
the
marble
table
.
I
said
"
Merci
.
"
We
exchanged
a
few
apparently
innocent
remarks
,
and
suddenly
,
before
I
knew
how
it
had
come
about
,
we
were
in
the
midst
of
it
,
and
he
was
telling
me
how
much
they
had
been
"
intrigued
by
that
corpse
.
"
It
turned
out
he
had
been
one
of
the
boarding
officers
.
389
'
In
the
establishment
where
we
sat
one
could
get
a
variety
of
foreign
drinks
which
were
kept
for
the
visiting
naval
officers
,
and
he
took
a
sip
of
the
dark
medical-looking
stuff
,
which
probably
was
nothing
more
nasty
than
cassis
a
l'eau
,
and
glancing
with
one
eye
into
the
tumbler
,
shook
his
head
slightly
.
"
Impossible
de
comprendre
--
vous
concevez
,
"
he
said
,
with
a
curious
mixture
of
unconcern
and
thoughtfulness
.
I
could
very
easily
conceive
how
impossible
it
had
been
for
them
to
understand
.
Nobody
in
the
gunboat
knew
enough
English
to
get
hold
of
the
story
as
told
by
the
serang
.
There
was
a
good
deal
of
noise
,
too
,
round
the
two
officers
.
"
They
crowded
upon
us
.
390
There
was
a
circle
round
that
dead
man
(
autour
de
ce
mort
)
,
"
he
described
.
"
One
had
to
attend
to
the
most
pressing
.
These
people
were
beginning
to
agitate
themselves
--
Parbleu
!
A
mob
like
that
--
do
n't
you
see
?
"
he
interjected
with
philosophic
indulgence
.
As
to
the
bulkhead
,
he
had
advised
his
commander
that
the
safest
thing
was
to
leave
it
alone
,
it
was
so
villainous
to
look
at
.
They
got
two
hawsers
on
board
promptly
(
en
toute
hale
)
and
took
the
Patna
in
tow
--
stern
foremost
at
that
--
which
,
under
the
circumstances
,
was
not
so
foolish
,
since
the
rudder
was
too
much
out
of
the
water
to
be
of
any
great
use
for
steering
,
and
this
manoeuvre
eased
the
strain
on
the
bulkhead
,
whose
state
,
he
expounded
with
stolid
glibness
,
demanded
the
greatest
care
(
exigeait
les
plus
grands
menagements
)
.
I
could
not
help
thinking
that
my
new
acquaintance
must
have
had
a
voice
in
most
of
these
arrangements
:
he
looked
a
reliable
officer
,
no
longer
very
active
,
and
he
was
seamanlike
too
,
in
a
way
,
though
as
he
sat
there
,
with
his
thick
fingers
clasped
lightly
on
his
stomach
,
he
reminded
you
of
one
of
those
snuffy
,
quiet
village
priests
,
into
whose
ears
are
poured
the
sins
,
the
sufferings
,
the
remorse
of
peasant
generations
,
on
whose
faces
the
placid
and
simple
expression
is
like
a
veil
thrown
over
the
mystery
of
pain
and
distress
.
He
ought
to
have
had
a
threadbare
black
soutane
buttoned
smoothly
up
to
his
ample
chin
,
instead
of
a
frock-coat
with
shoulder-straps
and
brass
buttons
.