ready with so much hurry and inconvenience I should have lost my chance
of a start in life from such a cause. I asked:

"Does that sort of thing happen often so near the dock gates?"

"Often! No! Of course not often. But it ain't often either that a man
comes along with a cabload of things to join a ship at this time of
night. I've been in the dock police thirteen years and haven't seen it
done once."

"Meantime we followed my sea-chest which was being carried down a sort of
deep narrow lane, separating two high warehouses, between honest Ted and
his little devil of a pal who had to keep up a trot to the other's
stride. The skirt of his soldier's coat floating behind him nearly swept
the ground so that he seemed to be running on castors. At the corner of
the gloomy passage a rigged jib boom with a dolphin-striker ending in an
arrow-head stuck out of the night close to a cast iron lamp-post. It was
the quay side. They set down their load in the light and honest Ted
asked hoarsely:

"Where's your ship, guv'nor?"

"I didn't know. The constable was interested at my ignorance.

"Don't know where your ship is?" he asked with curiosity. "And you the
second officer! Haven't you been working on board of her?"

"I couldn't explain that the only work connected with my appointment was
the work of chance. I told him briefly that I didn't know her at all. At
this he remarked: