Peter been on sentry duty, he could not have continued it more regularly
or persistently. If he were walking off his supper, as most of those
seated aft would have suggested, the performance was not particularly
interesting. The limit and rapidity of the walk resembled the tramp of a
confined animal, exercising its last meal. But when one stands in front
of the lion's cage, and sees that restless and tireless stride, one
cannot but wonder how much of it is due to the last shin-bone, and how
much to the wild and powerful nature under the tawny skin. The question
occurs because the nature and antecedents of the lion are known. For
this same reason the yachters were a unit in agreeing that Stirling's
unceasing walk was merely a digestive promenade. The problem was whether
they were right? Or whether, to apply Mr. Pierce's formula, they merely
imposed their own frame of mind in place of Stirling's, and decided,
since their sole reason for walking at the moment would be entirely
hygienic, that he too must be striding from the same cause?

Dr. Holmes tells us that when James and Thomas converse there are really
six talkers. First, James as James thinks he is, and Thomas as Thomas
thinks he is. Second James as Thomas thinks him, and Thomas as James
thinks him. Finally, there are James and Thomas as they really are.
Since this is neither an autobiography nor an inspired story, the
world's view of Peter Stirling must be adopted without regard to its
accuracy. And because this view was the sum of his past and personal,
these elements must be computed before we can know on what the world
based its conclusions concerning him.

His story was as ordinary and prosaic as Mr. and Mrs. Pierce seemed to
think his character. Neither riches nor poverty had put a shaping hand
to it. The only child of his widowed mother, he had lived in one of the
smaller manufacturing cities of New England a life such as falls to most