42 ALONGSHORE i 



mazed to go to sea (he wears navy uniform now 

 instead of corduroys that stiffen like boards with 

 salt-water), they began to be yellow in the face — • 

 not with sea-sickness exactly, so much as with what 

 one might call sea-cream-sickness. Therefore, for 

 their stomach's sake, I got them to take the oars, 

 and a bad look-out was kept — a bad look-out 

 until one of us said: 'Southerly wind again 

 to-morrow. Look at thic bank o' cloud out 

 there.' 



The one who was nicknamed Captain took the 

 trouble to look. 'Clouds, you fool!' he exclaimed; 

 "Tis fog ! 'Tis a gert fog-bank.' 



We were a mile and a half to sea, and a couple 

 of miles from home. We started rowing hard. 

 The fog-bank crept towards us still faster. Use- 

 less to try to escape it. A bird must feel so when 

 a cat, flattened to the ground, crawls down on It 

 without apparent motion. 



Soon the warm light of the sun was polluted 

 by a cold whiteness. The sun itself, for a passing 

 moment a shining round thing in the heavens, 

 disappeared altogether. The fog was upon us, 

 thickening. In an instant the great high red cliffs 

 to landward were snuffed out as if they had been 

 a shuttered light. The fog got down our throats, 



