'That was what it was!' cried Herrick. 'I thought they seemed
unusually big, and I remember now I had to go to the
money-changers at Charing Cross and get English silver.'

'O, you went there?' said the clerk. 'Wot did you do? Bet you
had a B. and S.!'

'Well, you see, it was just as the old boy said--like the cut of
a whip,' said Herrick. 'The one minute I was here on the beach
at three in the morning, the next I was in front of the Golden
Cross at midday. At first I was dazzled, and covered my eyes,
and there didn't seem the smallest change; the roar of the Strand
and the roar of the reef were like the same: hark to it now, and
you can hear the cabs and buses rolling and the streets resound!
And then at last I could look about, and there was the old place,
and no mistake! With the statues in the square, and St Martin's-
in-the-Fields, and the bobbies, and the sparrows, and the hacks;
and I can't tell you what I felt like. I felt like crying, I
believe, or dancing, or jumping clean over the Nelson Column. I
was like a fellow caught up out of Hell and flung down into the
dandiest part of Heaven. Then I spotted for a hansom with a
spanking horse. "A shilling for yourself, if you're there in
twenty minutes!" said I to the jarvey. He went a good pace,
though of course it was a trifle to the carpet; and in nineteen
minutes and a half I was at the door.'

'What door?' asked the captain.

'Oh, a house I know of,' returned Herrick.