"'Very well! I'll report you in Singapore. . . . Good-bye!'

"He waved his hand. Our men dropped their bundles quietly. The steamer
moved ahead, and passing out of the circle of light, vanished at once
from our sight, dazzled by the fire which burned fiercely. And then I
knew that I would see the East first as commander of a small boat. I
thought it fine; and the fidelity to the old ship was fine. We should
see the last of her. Oh the glamour of youth! Oh the fire of it, more
dazzling than the flames of the burning ship, throwing a magic light on
the wide earth, leaping audaciously to the sky, presently to be quenched
by time, more cruel, more pitiless, more bitter than the sea--and like
the flames of the burning ship surrounded by an impenetrable night."

*****

"The old man warned us in his gentle and inflexible way that it was part
of our duty to save for the under-writers as much as we could of the
ship's gear. According we went to work aft, while she blazed forward to
give us plenty of light. We lugged out a lot of rubbish. What didn't we
save? An old barometer fixed with an absurd quantity of screws nearly
cost me my life: a sudden rush of smoke came upon me, and I just got
away in time. There were various stores, bolts of canvas, coils of rope;
the poop looked like a marine bazaar, and the boats were lumbered to the
gunwales. One would have thought the old man wanted to take as much as
he could of his first command with him. He was very very quiet, but off
his balance evidently. Would you believe it? He wanted to take a length
of old stream-cable and a kedge-anchor with him in the long-boat. We
said, 'Ay, ay, sir,' deferentially, and on the quiet let the thing slip
overboard. The heavy medicine-chest went that way, two bags of green
coffee, tins of paint--fancy, paint!--a whole lot of things. Then I was