238 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



to go \\dth me to find him or shall I bring him here?* 

 After a search in very hkely places we found him 

 aboard his boat so near asleep that both 'Jennings' 

 and 'Pat' had to be called loudly before he com- 

 menced to stretch himself to consciousness that 

 some one desired speech with him, and that, if his 

 eyes told him true, there might be profit in it. 



I have seen animals, wild and tame, rise from 

 their recumbent positions and display their forms 

 with a preliminary stretching of their backs, and the 

 man who rose at last acted in a strikingly similar 

 manner. He was a rough, huge fellow, much past 

 middle age, with shoulders which, in spite of their 

 being sHghtly bent, seemed capable of carr^dng great 

 loads, and his legs, parts of whiich showed through 

 rents, looked little likely to give way, be the burden 

 what it m.ight. His face fitted him. The steel-blue 

 eyes that shone at times from out their heavy covering 

 showed the man had grit to tackle what m.any would 

 decline. Plis nose came a long v/ay down and flattened 

 as it came to meet a determined chin that had hanging 

 from it a bristly 's^isp trimmed one would guess by 

 himself and yet in such a fashion as suited him. He 

 Vv-as clad in gray homespun, much worn where most 

 put upon by use, and his boots, to be in keeping with 

 the rest of his outfit, gave freedom to his toes. He wore 

 a hat the brim of which had a sUt across it, one edge 

 of which curled up and the other down over his left 

 ear, and there presumably caused such tickling that 

 the battered headgear was gradually pushed to the 

 ether side until it almost covered the right eye. This 

 gave a finishing touch to the mean's rollicking appear- 

 ance as he looked and listened to me from his boat. 



Had I been called upon to search the harbour and 

 say which of the m.any boats belonged to Jennings, 

 I tliink I should have hit upon his four and a half 

 tonner that wanted arms and legs like his to use 

 her oars. She needed a stifhsh breeze when imder 



