I should have liked to have
taken part in another wild dance among the tables of the wine shops. I
was sorry to be leaving.
When the winch began to clank, as the cable was hove in, I gathered up
my lead-line, and went to the leadsman's dicky, or little projecting
platform, on the starboard side. I was to be the leadsman that night,
and as we should soon be moving, I made the breast-rope secure, and
stood by.
Presently the bell of the engine-room clanged, and there came a wash
abaft as the screws thrashed. The ship trembled, as the turbulent
trampling of the engines shook her. The bell clanged again; the water
below me gleamed and whitened; the dark body of the steamer, with her
lines of lit ports, swept slowly across the lights in the harbour. The
trampling of the engines steadied, and took to itself a rhythm. We
were off. I cast an eye astern at the little town I was so sad to
leave, and caught a glimpse of a path of churned water, broadening
astern of us. A voice sounded from the promenade deck behind me. "Zat
light, what you call 'eem?"
I could not answer. My orders were to keep strict silence. The point
of an umbrella took me sharply below the shoulders.
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