174 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



board " single-handed." And he told the why and where- 

 fore of his fear of the sea. 



With a mate he had been for many months, beche-de- 

 mer fishing, their station or headquarters a lonely islet 

 in Whitsunday Passage, which winds about that picturesque 

 group of islands through which Captain Cook passed in 

 the year 1770. The twain had been out on one of the spurs of 

 the Great Barrier Reef, and had been caught in the toils of 

 adverse weather. After beating about for days they 

 managed to make their station — hungry, thirsty, their souls 

 fainting within them. Shelter and comfort were theirs, and 

 it was no surprise to my visitor when his mate slept the 

 next morning beyond the accustomed time. " Let him 

 rest," he said. " He is dog-tired ; " and went about the 

 work of the day. He had himself known what it was to 

 sleep eighteen and twenty hours at a stretch, for he had 

 many times been worn by toil and watching and nerve- 

 tension to the limit of endurance. And so the day passed, 

 and the man in the bunk slept on. Peace and rest were 

 his, and the busy man envied the calm indifference to the 

 day's doings that he could not find in his heart to disturb. 



" Won't he feel fresh when he does wake," he reflected. 

 " He'll be a bit narked at having wasted a whole 

 bloomin' day. I shouldn't be surprised if he was savage, 

 because I didn't call him." 



When the evening meal was prepared and everything 

 in the tiny hut made orderly, it would be a pleasure for 

 him to wake up and discover that he had been allowed to 

 have his sleep out. 



Ah ! but his sleep was very sound and very silent — 

 almost too stillful to be natural. 



A touch on his shoulders, saying — "Andrew. Wake 

 up, old tellow ! " 



No movement, or response. His feet — cold ! cold ! 

 and his chest, too, cold ! 



The mate had found his port after stormy seas. His heart 

 — ^worn out with stress and strain — had failed within him, and 

 -all day long his companion thought tenderly of him, making 



