基本信息
eemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished sprits. a haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. the air was dark above gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding mo- tionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth.
the director of companies was our captain and our host. we four affectionately watched his back as he stood in the bows looking to seaward. on the whole river there was nothing that looked half so nautical. he resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personified. it was difficult to realize his work was not out there in the luminous estuary, but behind him, within the brooding gloom.
between us there was, as i have already said some- where, the bond of the sea. besides holding our hearts together through long periods of separation, it had the effect of making us tolerant of each other's yarns--and even convictions. the lawyer--the best of old fellows --had, because of his many years and many virtues, the only cushion on deck, and was
