Part 2 (2/2)

Thenceforward eventsuseful I joined him on deck, only to find that he scarcely noticed me, save as a new and unexpected obstacle in his round of activity He was everywhere at once--heaving in chain, hooking on halyards, hauling ropes; while s after they are already done, forand inaccurate kind which is useless in practice Soon the anchor was up (a great rustyswiftly to and fro between the tiller and jib-sheets, while the 'Dulcibella' bowed a lingering farewell to the shore and headed for the open fiord Erratic puffs froress timorous at first, but soon the fairas reached and a true breeze frorip Steadily she rustled down the calhhose soft beauty was the introduction to a passage in h stress and strain, forhis natural self, with abstracted intervals, in which he lashed the heler a distant rope, with such speed that the movements seemed simultaneous Once he vanished, only to reappear in an instant with a chart, which he studied, while steering, with a success that its reluctant folds see respectfully for his revival I had full time to look about The fiord here was about a mile broad From the shore we had left the hills rose steeply, but with no rugged grandeur; the outlines were soft; there were green spaces and rich woods on the lower slopes; a little white toas opening up in one place, and scattered farms dotted the prospect The other shore, which I could just see, fraainst the hatchway, and sadly h prosperous and pleasing to the eye

spacious pastures led up by slow degrees to ordered clusters of wood, which hinted at the presence of so into haze Ahead, the scene was shut in by the contours of hills, soli between the folds of hill far away hinted at spaces of distant sea of which this was but a secluded inlet Everywhere was that peculiar charendered by the association of quiet pastoral country and a horeat ocean that bathes all the shores of our globe

There was another char it--not as a paer on a 'fine steam yacht', or even on 'a powerful ents advertise, but from the deck of a scrubby little craft of doubtful build and distressing plainness, which yet had sh I knew not what of difficulty and danger, with no apparent uely and unconcernedly about his adventurous cruise as though it were all a protracted afternoon on Southalanced round at Davies He had dropped the chart and was sitting, or rather half lying, on the deck with one bronzed ar fixedly ahead, with just an occasional glance around and aloft He still seemed absorbed in himself, and for a moment or two I studied his face with an attention I had never, since I had known hiht it coht hiht at all about either

It had always rather irritated me by an excess of candour and boyishness These qualities it had kept, but the scales were falling froth to obstinacy and courage to recklessness, in the firm lines of the chin; an older and deeper look in the eyes Those odd transitions froht mobility to detached earnestness, which had partly amused and chiefly annoyed me hitherto, seeotistic, but strangely winning from its paradoxical frankness

Sincerity was sta stirred ht enialmistakes--how many, I wondered? A relief, scarcely less deep because it was unconfessed, stole in on me with the suspicion that, little as I deserved it, the patient fates were offeringat least one And yet, I mused, the patient fates have crooked methods, besides a certain mischievous huh now he scarcely seeht have knoas not suited to such a life; yet trickery and Davies sounded an odd conjuncture

Probably it was the growing discoht's rest and the 'ascent from the bath' had, in fact, done little to prepare es and hard surfaces But Davies had suddenly come to hi to sit on?' jerked the helm a little to ard, felt it like a pulse for a moment, with a rapid look to ard, and dived belohence he returned with a couple of cushi+ons, which he threw to me I felt perversely resentful of these luxuries, and asked:

'Can't I be of any use?'

'Oh, don't you bother,' he answered 'I expect you're tired Aren't we having a splendid sail? Thatunder the sail, 'where the trees run in I say, do youat the chart?' He tossed it over to me I spread it out painfully, for it curled up like a watch-spring at the least slackening of pressure I was not familiar with charts, and this sudden trust reposed in lect, , don't you?' he said 'That's where we are,'

dabbing with a long reach at an indefinite space on the crowded sheet 'Nohich side of that buoy off the point do we pass?'

I had scarcely taken in which was land and which ater, nificance of the buoy, when he resumed:

'Never mind; I'm pretty sure it's all deep water about here I expect that marks the fair-way for stea the buoy in question, on the wrong side I am pretty certain, for weeds and sand came suddenly into view beloith uncomfortable distinctness But all Davies said was:

'There's never any sea here, and the plate's not down,' a dark utterance which I pondered doubtfully 'The best of these Schlesaters,' he went on, is that a boat of this size can go alation required Why--'At thiswas felt, rather than heard, beneath us

'Aren't we aground?' I asked with great cal a little

She 'blew over', but the episode caused a little naive vexation in Davies I relate it as a good instance of one of his minor peculiarities He was utterly without that didactic pedantry which yachting has a fatal tendency to engender in ht that I was an ignoramus, to whom it would be Greek, and ould provide him with an adlect ofhad been merely habitual and unconscious independence In the second place, master of his _metier_, as I knew him afterwards to be, resourceful, skilful, and alert, he was liable to lapse into a certain a I think truly that both these peculiarities came from the same source, a hatred of any sort of affectation To the same source I traced the fact that he and his yacht observed none of the superficial etiquette of yachts and yachtsn, and he never wore a 'yachting suit'

We rounded a low green point which I had scarcely noticed before

'We must jibe,' said Davies: 'just take the helan hauling in the , but jibing is a delicate operation No yachtsman will be surprised to hear that the boohty crash, with the led round ,' was his sorrowful comment 'You're not used to her yet She's very quick on the helm'

'Where am I to steer for?' I asked, wildly

'Oh, don't trouble, I'll take her now,' he replied

I felt it was ti,' I began 'You'll have a lot to teachyou You see, there's always been a crew--'Creith sovereign conte oneself'

'Well, I've felt in the way the whole '