brave fellows would return home, how the ships could go where they would
in peace, and how we could pull all the coast beacons down, for there
was no enemy now to fear. So we chatted as we walked along the clean,
hard sand, and looked out at the old North Sea. How little did Jim know
at that moment, as he strode along by my side so full of health and of
spirits, that he had reached the extreme summit of his life, and that
from that hour all would, in truth, be upon the downward slope!

There was a little haze out to sea; for it had been very misty in the
early morning, though the sun had thinned it. As we looked seawards we
suddenly saw the sail of a small boat break out through the fog, and
come bobbing along towards the land. A single man was seated in the
sheets, and she yawed about as she ran, as though he were of two minds
whether to beach her or no. At last, determined it may be by our
presence, he made straight for us, and her keel grated upon the shingle
at our very feet. He dropped his sail, sprang out, and pulled her bows
up on the beach.

"Great Britain, I believe?" said he, turning briskly round and facing
us.

He was a man somewhat above middle height, but exceedingly thin.
His eyes were piercing and set close together, a long sharp nose jutted
out from between them, and beneath them was a bristle of brown moustache
as wiry and stiff as a cat's whiskers. He was well dressed in a suit of
brown with brass buttons, and he wore high boots which were all
roughened and dulled by the sea water. His face and hands were so dark
that he might have been a Spaniard, but as he raised his hat to us we
saw that the upper part of his brow was quite white and that it was from
without that he had his swarthiness. He looked from one to the other of