Part 20 (2/2)

'Give us the ”Ganges Pilot”; you sang that in the square the night before El-Maghrib. By the way, I wonder how many of the chorus are alive to-night,' said d.i.c.k.

Torpenhow considered for a minute. 'By Jove! I believe only you and I.

Raynor, Vicery, and Deenes--all dead; Vincent caught smallpox in Cairo, carried it here and died of it. Yes, only you and I and the Nilghai.'

'Umph! And yet the men here who've done their work in a well-warmed studio all their lives, with a policeman at each corner, say that I charge too much for my pictures.'

'They are buying your work, not your insurance policies, dear child,'

said the Nilghai.

'I gambled with one to get at the other. Don't preach. Go on with the ”Pilot.” Where in the world did you get that song?'

'On a tombstone,' said the Nilghai. 'On a tombstone in a distant land. I made it an accompaniment with heaps of base chords.'

'Oh, Vanity! Begin.' And the Nilghai began--

'I have slipped my cable, messmates, I'm drifting down with the tide, I have my sailing orders, while yet an anchor ride.

And never on fair June morning have I put out to sea With clearer conscience or better hope, or a heart more light and free.

'Shoulder to shoulder, Joe, my boy, into the crowd like a wedge Strike with the hangers, messmates, but do not cut with the edge.

Cries Charnock, ”Scatter the f.a.ggots, double that Brahmin in two, The tall pale widow for me, Joe, the little brown girl for you!”

'Young Joe (you're nearing sixty), why is your hide so dark? Katie has soft fair blue eyes, who blackened yours?--Why, hark!'

They were all singing now, d.i.c.k with the roar of the wind of the open sea about his ears as the deep ba.s.s voice let itself go.

'The morning gun-- Ho, steady! the arquebuses to me!

I ha' sounded the Dutch High Admiral's heart As my lead doth sound the sea.

'Sounding, sounding the Ganges, floating down with the tide, Moore me close to Charnock, next to my nut-brown bride.

My blessing to Kate at Fairlight--Holwell, my thanks to you; Steady! We steer for heaven, through sand-drifts cold and blue.'

'Now what is there in that nonsense to make a man restless?' said d.i.c.k, hauling Binkie from his feet to his chest.

'It depends on the man,' said Torpenhow.

'The man who has been down to look at the sea,' said the Nilghai.

'I didn't know she was going to upset me in this fas.h.i.+on.'

'That's what men say when they go to say good-bye to a woman. It's more easy though to get rid of three women than a piece of one's life and surroundings.'

'But a woman can be----' began d.i.c.k, unguardedly.

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