WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.439 --> 00:00:07.759 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, chapter fifty four. It was 2 00:00:07.799 --> 00:00:10.480 one of those March days when the sun shines hot 3 00:00:10.519 --> 00:00:13.439 and the wind blows cold, when it is summer in 4 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:16.399 the light and winter in the shade. We had our 5 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:19.640 pea coats with us, and I took a bag of 6 00:00:19.719 --> 00:00:22.280 all my worldly possessions. I took no more than the 7 00:00:22.280 --> 00:00:25.920 few necessaries that filled the bag. Where I might go, 8 00:00:26.440 --> 00:00:29.079 what I might do, or when I might return were 9 00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:32.840 questions utterly unknown to me. Nor did I vex my 10 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:36.399 mind with them, for it was wholly set on provis's safety. 11 00:00:37.159 --> 00:00:39.960 I only wondered for the passing moment, as I stopped 12 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:43.719 at the door and looked back, under what altered circumstances 13 00:00:43.759 --> 00:00:48.600 I should next see those rooms? If ever, we loitered 14 00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:52.039 down to the temple stairs, and stood loitering there, as 15 00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:54.280 if we were not quite decided to go upon the 16 00:00:54.320 --> 00:00:57.600 water at all. Of course, I had taken care that 17 00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:00.799 the boats should be ready and everything in order. After 18 00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:04.120 a little show of indecision, which there were none to 19 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:07.040 see but the two or three amphibious creatures belonging to 20 00:01:07.159 --> 00:01:10.719 our temple stairs, we went on board and cast off 21 00:01:10.920 --> 00:01:14.760 Herbert in the bow I steering. It was then about 22 00:01:14.840 --> 00:01:20.040 high water half past eight. Our plan was this the 23 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:23.200 tide beginning to run down at nine, and being with 24 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:26.920 us until three. We intended still to creep on after 25 00:01:26.959 --> 00:01:30.519 it had turned, and row against it until dark. We 26 00:01:30.519 --> 00:01:33.840 should then be well in those long reaches below Gravesend, 27 00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:38.200 between Canton, Essex, where the river is broad and solitary, 28 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:42.280 where the waterside inhabitants are very few, and where lone 29 00:01:42.359 --> 00:01:45.480 public houses are scattered here and there, of which we 30 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:49.280 could choose one for a resting place. There we meant 31 00:01:49.319 --> 00:01:52.959 to lie by all night. The steamer for Hamburg and 32 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:55.920 the steamer for Rotterdam would start from London at about 33 00:01:56.280 --> 00:01:59.680 nine on Thursday morning. We should know at what time 34 00:01:59.719 --> 00:02:03.040 to expect them according to where we were, and would 35 00:02:03.079 --> 00:02:06.920 hail the first, so that if by any accident we 36 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:10.759 were not taken aboard, we should have another chance. We 37 00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:15.400 knew the distinguishing marks of each vessel. The relief of 38 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:18.520 being at last engaged in the execution of the purpose 39 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:21.159 was so great to me that I felt it difficult 40 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:23.759 to realize the condition in which I had been a 41 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:28.599 few hours before. The crisp bare the sunlight, the movement 42 00:02:28.680 --> 00:02:32.360 on the river, and the moving river itself. The road 43 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:36.400 that ran with us, seeming to sympathize with us, animate us, 44 00:02:36.439 --> 00:02:41.039 and encourage us on, freshened me with new hope. I 45 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:44.120 felt mortified to be of so little use in the boat, 46 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:47.199 But there were a few better oarsmen than my two friends, 47 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:50.039 and they rowed with a steady stroke that was to 48 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:54.719 last all day. At that time, the steam traffic on 49 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:57.960 the Thames was far below its present extent, and the 50 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:03.120 watermen's boats were far more numerous. Of barges, sailing, colliers 51 00:03:03.159 --> 00:03:06.919 and coasting traders there were perhaps as many as now, 52 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:11.360 but of steamships great and small, not a tithe or 53 00:03:11.400 --> 00:03:15.319 a twentieth part so many. Early as it was, there 54 00:03:15.319 --> 00:03:18.199 were plenty of scullers going here and there that morning, 55 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:21.960 and plenty of barges dropping down with the tide. The 56 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:25.280 navigation of the river between bridges in an open boat 57 00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:28.840 was a much easier and commoner matter in those days 58 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:31.840 than it is in these, and we went ahead among 59 00:03:32.039 --> 00:03:37.120 many skiffs and werries briskly. Old London Bridge was soon 60 00:03:37.240 --> 00:03:41.199 passed an old Billingscape market, with its oyster boats and dutchmen, 61 00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:45.000 and the White Tower and Trader's Gate, and we were 62 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:47.840 in among the tiers of shipping. Here were the Leith, 63 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:53.039 Aberdeen and Glasgow steamers loading and unloading goods, and looking 64 00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:56.319 immensely high out of the water as we passed alongside. 65 00:03:57.280 --> 00:04:00.960 Here were colliers by the score and scull, with the 66 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:05.280 coal whippers plunging off stages on deck as counterweights to 67 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:08.919 measures of coals swinging up, which were then rattled over 68 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:12.840 the side into barges. Here at her Mooring's was Tomorrow's 69 00:04:12.840 --> 00:04:16.639 steamer for Rotterdam, of which we took good notice, and 70 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:21.920 here Tomorrow's for Hamburg, under whose bowsprit we crossed. And 71 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:25.120 now I, sitting in the stern, could see with a 72 00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:29.199 faster beating heart, mill pond bank and mill pond stairs. 73 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:36.160 Is he there? Said Herbert, Not yet right. He was 74 00:04:36.199 --> 00:04:38.959 not to come down till he saw us. Can you 75 00:04:39.079 --> 00:04:44.319 see his signal? Not well from here, but I think 76 00:04:44.360 --> 00:04:49.120 I see it now. I see him pull both easy, 77 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:54.639 Herbert oars. We touched the stairs lightly for a single moment, 78 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:57.240 and he was on board, and we were off again. 79 00:04:57.879 --> 00:05:00.279 He had a boat cloak with him and al black 80 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:03.319 canvas bag, and he looked as like a river pilot 81 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:07.839 as my heart could have wished, dear boy, he said, 82 00:05:07.879 --> 00:05:11.920 putting his arm on my shoulder as he took his seat. Faithful, 83 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:17.360 dear boy, well done, Thank you, Thank you again. Among 84 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:21.560 the tiers of shipping in and out, avoiding rusty chain cables, 85 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:25.959 frayed hempen hawsers and bobbing boys sinking for the moment, 86 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:30.560 floating broken baskets, scattering floating chips of wood, and shaving 87 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:35.439 cleaving floating scum of coal, in and out under the 88 00:05:35.439 --> 00:05:38.399 figurehead of the John of Sunderland making a speech to 89 00:05:38.439 --> 00:05:42.240 the winds, as is done by many Johns, and the 90 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:45.600 Betsy of Yarmouth, with a firm formality of bosom and 91 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:48.439 her knobby eyes starting two inches out of her head. 92 00:05:49.160 --> 00:05:54.000 In and out, Hammers going in shipbuilder's yards, saws going 93 00:05:54.040 --> 00:05:59.160 at timber, clashing, engines going at things unknown, Pumps going 94 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:04.120 in leaky shipps, capstans going, ships going out to sea, 95 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:09.319 and unintelligible sea creatures roaring curses over the bulwarks that responded. 96 00:06:09.439 --> 00:06:14.199 Lighterman in and out out at last upon the clearer river, 97 00:06:14.680 --> 00:06:18.240 where the ship's boys might take their fenders in, no 98 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:21.079 longer fishing in troubled waters with them over the side, 99 00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:24.720 and where the festooned sails might fly out to the wind, 100 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:29.040 at the stairs where we had taken him aboard. And 101 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:32.480 ever since I had looked warily for any token of 102 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:36.759 our being suspected, I had seen none. We certainly had 103 00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:39.360 not been, and at that time, as certainly, we were 104 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:43.000 not either attended or followed by any boat. If we 105 00:06:43.040 --> 00:06:45.639 had been waited on by any boat, I should have 106 00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:48.319 run into shore and have obliged her to go on, 107 00:06:49.079 --> 00:06:51.839 or to make her purpose evident. But we held our 108 00:06:51.879 --> 00:06:56.600 own without any appearance of molestation. He had his boat 109 00:06:56.680 --> 00:06:59.120 cloak on him, and had looked, as I have said, 110 00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:03.480 a natural part of the scene. It was remarkable, but 111 00:07:03.639 --> 00:07:06.279 perhaps the wretched life he had led accounted for it. 112 00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:09.000 That he was the least anxious of any of us. 113 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:12.279 He was not indifferent, for he told me that he 114 00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:14.519 hoped to live to see his gentlemen, one of the 115 00:07:14.600 --> 00:07:17.920 best of gentlemen in a foreign country. He was not 116 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:21.439 disposed to be passive or resigned, as I understood it, 117 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:24.720 But he had no notion of meeting danger half way. 118 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:28.439 When it came upon him, he confronted it. But it 119 00:07:28.519 --> 00:07:33.560 must come before he troubled himself. If you know, dear boy, 120 00:07:34.120 --> 00:07:36.720 he said to me, what it is to sit here 121 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:40.680 no longer, my dear boy, and have my smoke arter 122 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:44.879 been day by day betwixt four walls. You'd envy me, 123 00:07:45.519 --> 00:07:49.240 but you don't know what it is. I think I 124 00:07:49.399 --> 00:07:55.040 know the delights of freedom, I answered, Ah, said, he 125 00:07:55.279 --> 00:07:59.199 shaking his head gravely. But you don't know it equal 126 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:02.199 to me. You must have been under lock and key, 127 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:05.720 dear boy, to know it equal to me. But I 128 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:09.720 ain't a goin to be low. It occurred to me 129 00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:13.959 as inconsistent that for any mastering idea, he should have 130 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:18.399 endangered his freedom and even his life. But I reflected 131 00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:21.879 that perhaps freedom without danger was too much, apart from 132 00:08:21.959 --> 00:08:25.399 all the habit of his existence, to be to him 133 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:28.279 what it would be to another man. I was not 134 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:33.200 far out, since he said, after smoking a little. You see, 135 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:36.559 dear boy, when I was over yonder the other side 136 00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:39.919 of the world, I was always a lookin to this side, 137 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:42.799 and it come flat to be there. For all I 138 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:48.240 was a growing rich. Everybody knowed Magwitch, and Magwitch could 139 00:08:48.279 --> 00:08:52.080 come and Magwitch could go, and nobody's head will be 140 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:56.200 troubled about him. They ain't so easy concerning me here, 141 00:08:56.480 --> 00:09:00.480 dear boy, wouldn't be leastwise if they knowed where I was. 142 00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:05.840 If all goes well, said I, you will be perfectly 143 00:09:05.879 --> 00:09:11.519 free and safe again within a few hours. Well, he returned, 144 00:09:11.639 --> 00:09:17.679 drawing a long breath. I hope so, and think so. 145 00:09:19.240 --> 00:09:21.519 He dipped his hand in the water over the boat's 146 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:25.320 gunneale and said, smiling with that softened air upon him 147 00:09:25.320 --> 00:09:29.519 which was not new to me. Ay, I suppose I 148 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:33.039 think so, dear boy. We'd be puzzled to be more 149 00:09:33.159 --> 00:09:36.559 quiet and easy goin than we are at present. But 150 00:09:37.639 --> 00:09:40.480 it's a flowin, so soft and pleasant through the water, 151 00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:44.799 perhaps as makes me think it. I was a thinkin 152 00:09:44.879 --> 00:09:48.320 through my smoke just then, that we can no more 153 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:50.759 see to the bottom of the next few hours than 154 00:09:51.039 --> 00:09:53.279 we can see to the bottom of this river what 155 00:09:53.399 --> 00:09:56.960 I catches hold of. Nor yet we can't no more 156 00:09:57.080 --> 00:10:01.080 hold there tide than I can hold this. And it's 157 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:05.200 run through my fingers and gone, you see, holding up 158 00:10:05.240 --> 00:10:08.879 his dripping hand. But for your face, I should think 159 00:10:08.919 --> 00:10:13.039 you were a little despondent, said I. Not a be 160 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:16.159 it on it, dear boy. It comes a flowing on, 161 00:10:16.440 --> 00:10:19.919 so quiet, and of that there, rippling at the boat's head, 162 00:10:19.919 --> 00:10:24.320 making a sort of a Sunday tune. Maybe I'm growin' 163 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:28.639 a trifle old. Besides, he put his pipe back in 164 00:10:28.679 --> 00:10:32.360 his mouth with an undisturbed expression of face, and sat 165 00:10:32.399 --> 00:10:35.360 as composed and contented as if we were already out 166 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:38.799 of England. Yet he was as submissive to a word 167 00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:41.759 of advice as if he had been in constant terror. 168 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:44.840 For when we ran ashore to get some bottles of 169 00:10:44.879 --> 00:10:48.080 beer into the boat, and he was stepping out, I 170 00:10:48.200 --> 00:10:50.799 hinted that I thought he would be safest where he was, 171 00:10:51.320 --> 00:10:55.799 and he said, do you, dear boy, and quietly sat 172 00:10:55.840 --> 00:11:00.480 down again. The air felt cold upon the rear, but 173 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:04.240 it was a bright day and the sunshine was very cheering. 174 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:08.120 The tide ran strong. I took care to lose none 175 00:11:08.159 --> 00:11:11.360 of it, and our steady stroke carried us on thoroughly well, 176 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:16.320 by imperceptible degrees. As the tide ran out, we lost 177 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:18.679 more and more of the nearer woods and hills, and 178 00:11:18.759 --> 00:11:22.120 dropped lower and lower between the muddy banks. But the 179 00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:24.840 tide was yet with us when we were off Gravesend. 180 00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:28.840 As our charge was wrapped in his cloak, I purposely 181 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:31.639 passed within a boat or two's length of the floating 182 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:36.080 custom house, and sew out to catch the stream, alongside 183 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:39.000 of two emigrant ships, and under the bows of a 184 00:11:39.080 --> 00:11:42.919 large transport with troops on the forecastle looking down at us. 185 00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:46.360 And soon the tide began to slacken, and the craft 186 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:49.720 lying at anchor to swing, and presently they had all 187 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:52.720 swung round, and the ships that were taking advantage of 188 00:11:52.759 --> 00:11:55.519 the new tide to get up to the pool began 189 00:11:55.639 --> 00:11:58.360 to crowd upon us in a fleet. And we kept 190 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:01.159 under the shore as much out of the strength of 191 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:04.519 the tide now as we could, standing carefully off from 192 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:09.639 low shallows and mud banks. Our oarsmen were so fresh 193 00:12:09.799 --> 00:12:12.399 by dint of having occasionally let her drive with the 194 00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:15.240 tide for a minute or two, that a quarter of 195 00:12:15.240 --> 00:12:18.039 an hour's rest proved full as much as they wanted. 196 00:12:18.919 --> 00:12:22.039 We got ashore among some slippery stones while we ate 197 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:25.000 and drank what we had with us, and looked about. 198 00:12:25.759 --> 00:12:29.639 It was like my own marsh country, flat and monotonous 199 00:12:30.120 --> 00:12:33.720 and with a dim horizon, while the winding river turned 200 00:12:33.759 --> 00:12:37.000 and turned, and the great floating buoyze upon it turned 201 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:42.159 and turned, and everything else seemed stranded and still for 202 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:44.559 now the last of the fleet of ships was round 203 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:47.480 the last low point we had headed, and the last 204 00:12:47.559 --> 00:12:52.360 green barge straw laden with brown sail, had followed, And 205 00:12:52.440 --> 00:12:56.399 some ballast sliders shaped like a child's first rude imitation 206 00:12:56.519 --> 00:12:59.559 of a boat, lay low in the mud, and a 207 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:03.799 little squat shoal lighthouse on open piles stood crippled in 208 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:08.080 the mud on stilts and crutches, and slimy stakes stuck 209 00:13:08.120 --> 00:13:11.399 out of the mud, and slimy stones stuck out of 210 00:13:11.399 --> 00:13:15.360 the mud, and red landmarks and tide marks stuck out 211 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:18.399 of the mud, and an old landing stage and an 212 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:22.120 old roofless building slipped into the mud, and all about 213 00:13:22.200 --> 00:13:28.200 us was stagnation and mud. We pushed off again and 214 00:13:28.279 --> 00:13:31.799 made what way we could. It was much harder worked now, 215 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:35.679 but Herbert and star Top persevered and rowed and rowed 216 00:13:35.799 --> 00:13:39.600 and rowed until the sun went down. By that time 217 00:13:39.639 --> 00:13:41.840 the river had lifted us a little so that we 218 00:13:41.879 --> 00:13:45.159 could see above the bank. There was the red sun 219 00:13:45.480 --> 00:13:47.720 on the low level of the shore, in a purple 220 00:13:47.799 --> 00:13:52.159 haze fast deepening into black, And there was the solitary 221 00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:56.240 flat marsh, and far away there were the rising grounds, 222 00:13:56.360 --> 00:14:00.240 between which and us there seemed to be no life 223 00:14:00.279 --> 00:14:04.559 here and there in the foreground of melancholy gull. As 224 00:14:04.600 --> 00:14:07.360 the night was fast falling, and as the moon being 225 00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:10.759 past the full would not rise early, we held a 226 00:14:10.799 --> 00:14:14.519 little council, a short one, for clearly our course was 227 00:14:14.559 --> 00:14:17.440 to lie by at the first lonely tavern we could find. 228 00:14:18.279 --> 00:14:21.879 So they plied their oars once more, and I looked 229 00:14:21.879 --> 00:14:25.279 out for anything like a house. Thus we held on, 230 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:29.879 speaking little for four or five dull miles. It was 231 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:32.960 very cold, and a collier coming by us, with her 232 00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:36.960 galy fire smoking and flaring, looked like a comfortable home. 233 00:14:38.480 --> 00:14:40.759 The night was as dark by this time as it 234 00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:44.559 would be until morning, and what light we had seemed 235 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:47.320 to come more from the river than the sky, as 236 00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:51.799 the oars, in their dipping struck at a few reflected stars. 237 00:14:52.440 --> 00:14:55.559 At this dismal time, we were evidently all possessed by 238 00:14:55.600 --> 00:14:59.519 the idea that we were followed. As the tide made 239 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:03.519 it lapped heavily at irregular intervals against the shore, and 240 00:15:03.559 --> 00:15:06.399 whenever such a sound came, one or other of us 241 00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:09.840 was sure to start and look in that direction. Here 242 00:15:09.879 --> 00:15:12.279 and there, the set of the current had worn down 243 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:14.960 the bank into a little creek, and we were all 244 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:20.679 suspicious of such places, and eyed them nervously. Sometimes what 245 00:15:20.919 --> 00:15:23.399 was that ripple? One of us would say in a 246 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:28.519 low voice, or another is that a boat yonder? And 247 00:15:28.679 --> 00:15:31.960 afterwards we would fall into a dead silence, and I 248 00:15:31.960 --> 00:15:35.480 would sit impatiently thinking with what an unusual amount of 249 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:39.919 noise the oars worked in the fowls. At length we 250 00:15:40.039 --> 00:15:43.480 descried a light and a roof, and presently afterwards ran 251 00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:47.039 alongside a little causeway made of stones that had been 252 00:15:47.080 --> 00:15:50.320 picked up hard by leaving the rest in the boat. 253 00:15:50.679 --> 00:15:53.159 I stepped ashore and found the light to be in 254 00:15:53.240 --> 00:15:56.559 the window of a public house. It was a dirty 255 00:15:56.600 --> 00:16:00.799 place enough, and I dare say not unknown to smuggling adventurers. 256 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:03.519 But there was a good fire in the kitchen, and 257 00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:06.840 there were eggs and bacon to eat, and various liquors 258 00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:11.799 to drink. Also, there were two double bedded rooms, such 259 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:16.279 as they were. The landlord said no other company was 260 00:16:16.320 --> 00:16:19.240 in the house than the landlord, his wife, and a 261 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:23.559 grizzled mail creature, the jack of the little causeway, who 262 00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:26.159 was as slimy and smeary as if he had been 263 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:30.759 a low water mark too. With this assistant, I went 264 00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:33.320 down to the boat again, and we all came ashore 265 00:16:33.399 --> 00:16:36.159 and brought out the oars and rudder and boat hook 266 00:16:36.600 --> 00:16:39.000 and all else, and hauled her up for the night. 267 00:16:39.879 --> 00:16:42.200 We made a very good meal by the kitchen fire, 268 00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:46.279 and then apportioned the bedrooms. Herbert and Startop were to 269 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:51.200 occupy one I and our charge the other. We found 270 00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:54.559 the air as carefully excluded from both as if air 271 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:58.039 were fatal to life, and there were more dirty clothes 272 00:16:58.080 --> 00:17:01.080 and bamboxes under the beds than I should have thought 273 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:06.480 the family possessed. But we considered ourselves well off, notwithstanding 274 00:17:06.960 --> 00:17:10.880 for a more solitary place we could not have found. 275 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:14.519 While we were comforting ourselves by the fire after our meal, 276 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:17.960 the jack who was sitting in a corner, and who 277 00:17:18.039 --> 00:17:20.960 had a bloated pair of shoes on which he had 278 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:24.240 exhibited while we were eating our eggs in bacon as 279 00:17:24.359 --> 00:17:26.880 interesting relics that he had taken a few days ago 280 00:17:26.920 --> 00:17:30.799 from the feet of a drowned seaman wash ashore, ask 281 00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:33.720 me if we had seen a four ord galley going 282 00:17:33.799 --> 00:17:37.160 up with the tide. When I told him no, he 283 00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:40.319 said she must have gone down then, and yet she 284 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:45.599 took up too when she left there. They must have 285 00:17:45.720 --> 00:17:49.160 thought better on it for some reason or other, said 286 00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:54.400 the jack, and gone down a four ord galley? Did 287 00:17:54.400 --> 00:17:59.720 you say, said I? A four said the jack, and 288 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:05.519 too sitters? Did they come ashore? Here? They put in 289 00:18:05.599 --> 00:18:09.279 with a stone two gallon jar for some beer. I'd 290 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:12.680 have been glad to pison the beer myself, said the jack, 291 00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:19.400 Or put some rattling physic in it. Why I know why, 292 00:18:19.880 --> 00:18:23.279 said the jack. He spoke in a slushy voice, as 293 00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:27.160 if much mud had washed into his throat. He thinks, 294 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:30.960 said the landlord, a weakly meditative man with a pale eye, 295 00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:34.960 who seemed to rely greatly on his jack. He thinks 296 00:18:35.079 --> 00:18:40.680 they was what they wasn't I knows what I thinks, 297 00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:47.279 observed the Jack. You think's customs us, jack, said the landlord. 298 00:18:48.799 --> 00:18:57.559 I do, said the jack. Then you're wrong, Jack, am I? 299 00:18:57.880 --> 00:19:00.880 In the infinite meaning of his reply and his boundless 300 00:19:00.920 --> 00:19:03.720 confidence in his views, that jack took one of his 301 00:19:03.799 --> 00:19:07.359 bloated shoes off, looked into it, knocked a few stones 302 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:09.400 out of it on the kitchen floor, and put it 303 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:12.079 on again. He did this with the air of a 304 00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:14.839 jack who was so right that he could afford to 305 00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:19.440 do anything Why what do you make out that they'd 306 00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:24.839 done with their buttons? Then Jack asked the landlord, vacillating weakly, 307 00:19:26.200 --> 00:19:31.160 done with their buttons? Returned the jack chucked them overboard, 308 00:19:31.559 --> 00:19:35.880 swallered him, sewed them to come up small salad, done 309 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:42.440 with their buttons? Don't be cheeky, Jack, remonstrated the landlord 310 00:19:42.519 --> 00:19:48.319 in a melancholy and pathetic way. A custom us officer 311 00:19:48.519 --> 00:19:52.240 knows what to do with his buttons, said the jack, 312 00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:56.440 repeating the obnoxious word with the greatest contempt, when they 313 00:19:56.519 --> 00:20:01.519 comes betwixt him and his own light a and two sitters. 314 00:20:01.599 --> 00:20:05.440 Don't go hanging and hovering up with one tide and 315 00:20:05.640 --> 00:20:09.759 down with another, and both with and against another, without 316 00:20:09.759 --> 00:20:13.880 there being custom us at the bottom of it, saying 317 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:16.720 which he went out in disdain, and the landlord, having 318 00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:20.279 no one to reply upon, found it impracticable to pursue 319 00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:25.279 the subject. The dialogue made us all uneasy, and me 320 00:20:25.720 --> 00:20:29.640 very uneasy. The dismal wind was muttering round the house, 321 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:33.039 the tide was flapping at the shore, and I had 322 00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:36.680 a feeling that we were caged and threatened. A four 323 00:20:36.759 --> 00:20:40.160 oared galley hovering about in so unusual a way as 324 00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:43.759 to attract. This notice was an ugly circumstance that I 325 00:20:43.799 --> 00:20:46.920 could not get rid of. When I had induced provis 326 00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:49.039 to go up to bed, I went outside with my 327 00:20:49.079 --> 00:20:52.759 two companions. Star top. By this time knew the state 328 00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:57.200 of the case, and held another council. Whether we should 329 00:20:57.200 --> 00:21:00.680 remain at the house until near the steamer's time, which 330 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:03.680 would be about one in the afternoon, or whether we 331 00:21:03.720 --> 00:21:06.599 should put off early in the morning, was the question 332 00:21:06.759 --> 00:21:10.000 we discussed on the whole. We deemed it the better 333 00:21:10.039 --> 00:21:13.319 course to lie where we were until within an hour 334 00:21:13.480 --> 00:21:15.920 or so of the steamer's time, and then to get 335 00:21:15.960 --> 00:21:19.960 out in her track and drift easily with the tide. 336 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:22.880 Having settled to do this, we returned into the house 337 00:21:23.319 --> 00:21:26.200 and went to bed. I lay down with the greater 338 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:29.079 part of my clothes on, and slept well for a 339 00:21:29.119 --> 00:21:32.960 few hours. When I awoke, the wind had risen, and 340 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:36.559 the sign of the house the ship was creaking and 341 00:21:36.599 --> 00:21:41.559 banging about with noises that startled me. Rising softly for 342 00:21:41.720 --> 00:21:45.079 my charge. Lay fast asleep, I looked out of the window. 343 00:21:45.759 --> 00:21:48.680 It commanded the causeway where we had hauled up our boat, 344 00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:51.680 and as my eyes adapted themselves to the light of 345 00:21:51.720 --> 00:21:55.279 the clouded moon, I saw two men looking into her. 346 00:21:56.200 --> 00:21:59.000 They passed by under the window, looking at nothing else, 347 00:21:59.480 --> 00:22:01.920 And they did did not go down to the landing place, 348 00:22:01.960 --> 00:22:05.240 which I could discern to be empty, but struck across 349 00:22:05.279 --> 00:22:09.240 the marsh in the direction of the nore. My first 350 00:22:09.279 --> 00:22:12.000 impulse was to call up Herbert and show him the 351 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:16.279 two men going away, but reflecting before I got into 352 00:22:16.319 --> 00:22:18.599 his room, which was at the back of the house, 353 00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:21.559 and had joined mine that he and star Top had 354 00:22:21.559 --> 00:22:25.759 had a harder day than I and were fatigued, I forbore. 355 00:22:27.079 --> 00:22:29.200 Going back to my window. I could see the two 356 00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:33.000 men moving over the marsh in that light. However, I 357 00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:36.799 soon lost them, and, feeling very cold, lay down to 358 00:22:36.839 --> 00:22:41.480 think of the matter, and fell asleep again. We were 359 00:22:41.559 --> 00:22:44.559 up early. As we walked to and fro, all four 360 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:48.759 together before breakfast, I deemed it right to recount what 361 00:22:48.839 --> 00:22:52.200 I had seen again. Our charge was the least anxious 362 00:22:52.200 --> 00:22:54.720 of the party. It was very likely that the men 363 00:22:54.799 --> 00:22:58.359 belonged to the custom house, he said quietly, and that 364 00:22:58.400 --> 00:23:01.920 they had no thought of us. I tried to persuade 365 00:23:01.960 --> 00:23:07.640 myself that it was so, as indeed it might easily be. However, 366 00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:10.279 I proposed that he and I should walk away together 367 00:23:10.359 --> 00:23:13.079 to a distant point we could see, and that the 368 00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:16.519 boat should take us aboard there, or as near there 369 00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:21.279 as might prove feasible at about noon, this being considered 370 00:23:21.319 --> 00:23:25.200 a good precaution. Soon after breakfast, he and I set forth, 371 00:23:25.559 --> 00:23:30.160 without saying anything. At the tavern. He smoked his pipe 372 00:23:30.200 --> 00:23:33.119 as we went along, and sometimes stopped to clap me 373 00:23:33.160 --> 00:23:36.240 on the shoulder. One would have supposed that it was 374 00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:39.200 I who was in danger, not he, and that he 375 00:23:39.319 --> 00:23:43.960 was reassuring me. We spoke very little. As we approached 376 00:23:43.960 --> 00:23:47.480 the point. I begged him to remain in a sheltered 377 00:23:47.480 --> 00:23:51.039 place while I went on to reconnoiter, for it was 378 00:23:51.079 --> 00:23:53.319 towards it that the men had passed in the night. 379 00:23:54.160 --> 00:23:57.599 He complied, and I went on alone. There was no 380 00:23:57.759 --> 00:24:00.759 boat off the point, nor any boat drop up anywhere 381 00:24:00.799 --> 00:24:03.400 near it, nor were there any signs of the men 382 00:24:03.480 --> 00:24:08.079 having embarked there, But to be sure, the tide was high, 383 00:24:08.119 --> 00:24:12.160 and there might have been some footprints under water. When 384 00:24:12.200 --> 00:24:14.480 he looked out from his shelter in the distance and 385 00:24:14.599 --> 00:24:17.000 saw that I waved my hat to him to come up, 386 00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:21.519 he rejoined me, and there we waited, sometimes lying on 387 00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:25.519 the bank, wrapped in our coats, and sometimes moving about 388 00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:29.160 to warm ourselves, until we saw our boat coming round. 389 00:24:30.119 --> 00:24:32.920 We got aboard easily and rowed out into the track 390 00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:36.440 of the steamer. By that time it wanted but ten 391 00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:39.000 minutes of one o'clock, and we began to look out 392 00:24:39.039 --> 00:24:43.440 for her smoke. But it was half past one before 393 00:24:43.480 --> 00:24:46.440 we saw her smoke, and soon afterwards we saw behind 394 00:24:46.480 --> 00:24:50.279 it the smoke of another steamer, as they were coming 395 00:24:50.319 --> 00:24:52.839 on at full speed. We got the two bags ready 396 00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:56.200 and took that opportunity of saying good bye to Herbert 397 00:24:56.279 --> 00:25:01.839 and startop. We'd all shaken hands cordially, and neither Herbert's 398 00:25:01.880 --> 00:25:04.920 eyes nor mine were quite dry when I saw a 399 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:07.759 four oared galley shoot out from under the bank, but 400 00:25:07.839 --> 00:25:10.359 a little way ahead of us, and row out into 401 00:25:10.359 --> 00:25:14.519