E. trade-wind seemed to be a soothing device for lulling to sleep
the suspicions of men who trust themselves to the sea.
A deep sigh was heard followed by the mate's voice asking dismally if
that was the way one would speak of a man to whom one wished well? No
better proof of something wrong was needed. Therefore he hoped, as he
vanished at last, that Mr. Powell would be on their side. And this time
Mr. Powell did not answer this hope with an embarrassed laugh.
That young officer was more and more surprised at the nature of the
incongruous revelations coming to him in the surroundings and in the
atmosphere of the open sea. It is difficult for us to understand the
extent, the completeness, the comprehensiveness of his inexperience, for
us who didn't go to sea out of a small private school at the age of
fourteen years and nine months. Leaning on his elbow in the mizzen
rigging and so still that the helmsman over there at the other end of the
poop might have (and he probably did) suspect him of being criminally
asleep on duty, he tried to "get hold of that thing" by some side which
would fit in with his simple notions of psychology.
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