112 ON THE WAY TO THE SOUTH 



ward in turning. This is an element of great danger in 

 these waters. It must be remembered that a possible 

 accident whether our own fault or not would to us 

 be absolutely fatal. We had so little time to spare that 

 the resulting delay might ruin the whole enterprise. 

 An ordinary trading vessel can take the risk ; by careful 

 manoeuvring a skipper can almost always keep out of 

 the way. Collisions are, as a rule, the result of rashness 

 or carelessness on one side or the other. The rash one 

 has to pay; the careful one may perhaps make money 

 out of it. Carefulness on our part was a matter of 

 course; it would have been a poor consolation to us if 

 another ship had had to pay for her carelessness. We 

 could not take that risk; therefore, little as we liked 

 doing so, we put into the Downs and anchored there. 



Right opposite to us we had the town of Deal, then 

 in the height of its season. The only amusement we 

 had was to observe all these apparently unconcerned 

 people, who passed their time in bathing, or walking 

 about the white, inviting sands. They had no need to 

 worry themselves much about what quarter the wind 

 blew from. Our only wish was that it would veer, or 

 in any case drop. Our communication with the land 

 was limited to sending ashore telegrams and letters for 

 home. 



By the next morning our patience was already quite 

 exhausted, but not so with the south-wester. It kept 

 going as steadily asever, but it was clear weather, and 



