He began to push at the oars again.

"For there's two roads to Birling Gap, my lad: one by land, and one by
sea. We've missed him by land. Now we'll see what the Jack-tars can do."


IV


The boy said nothing. His eyes were on his ship, dim above him in the
mist.

She was in rags and tatters: so much he could see, and little
else. Yet to him she seemed to glow in the dusk. He saw her through
blurred eyes in a cloud of glory, and his heart thrilled to her.

She was his ship; that ship of which he had dreamed ever since he could
dream, this boy born to the sea.

And was he not proud of her?

Shivering like a lover, he brought up alongside; and as he did so he
thrust out a hand to feel the wooden ribs which covered that heart
of valour.

For was she not the little _Tremendous_, of whom the heroic tales
were told!