294 ALONGSHORE v 



cracked with glass-washing and table-swabbing, if 

 it were possible to get out In a Boulogne fishing- 

 boat, and she had replied, 'Oh, it is quite easy, 

 m'sieur, the easiest thing in the world. I will ask 

 the patron at once, this moment.' And she did. 

 We had refused the chance of a sailing-drifter, 

 because, we said, it was too like our own craft. 

 We had trailed the length of the quay in the wake 

 of the patron. Now the decision had to be made, 

 and — it was plain — by that decision we were to be 

 weighed up, either as cafe-chatterers or as English 

 fishermen desirous of seeing French methods. 

 Drifters, steam and sail, with much blowing of 

 hooters, were already going out of harbour. The 

 Marie-Marthe was taking In her coal. A trip 

 aboard her would be fine to talk about upon the 

 beach at home; but, on the other hand, if It 

 turned out a failure, a mere dull waste of holiday, 

 that also I was safe to hear about at home. Hence 

 the difficulty, the responsibility, of deciding. When 

 would one hear the end of It? 



The skipper repeated his question very plainly. 

 'Suppose we do not return for two or three 

 days?' 



After all, it ill became a couple of men with 

 blue jerseys under their coats to shy at three days 



