was met he stuck another ship before me, creating a very dangerous
situation. I felt slightly outraged by this ingenuity in piling up
trouble upon a man.

"I wouldn't have got into that mess," I suggested mildly. "I could have
seen that ship before."

He never stirred the least bit.

"No, you couldn't. The weather's thick."

"Oh! I didn't know," I apologised blankly.

I suppose that after all I managed to stave off the smash with
sufficient approach to verisimilitude, and the ghastly business went on.
You must understand that the scheme of the test he was applying to me
was, I gathered, a homeward passage--the sort of passage I would not
wish to my bitterest enemy. That imaginary ship seemed to labour under
a most comprehensive curse. It's no use enlarging on these never-ending
misfortunes; suffice it to say that long before the end I would have
welcomed with gratitude an opportunity to exchange into the "Flying
Dutchman." Finally he shoved me into the North Sea (I suppose) and
provided me with a lee-shore with outlying sandbanks--the Dutch coast
presumably. Distance, eight miles. The evidence of such implacable
animosity deprived me of speech for quite half a minute.

"Well," he said--for our pace had been very smart indeed till then.

"I will have to think a little, sir."