big, and I remember now I had to go to the money-changers at Charing

Cross and get English silver.'

'O, you went there?' said the clerk. 'Wot did you do? Bet you had a B.

and S.!'

Well, you see, it was just as the old boy said--like the cut of a

whip,' said Herrick. 'The one minute I was here on the beach at three in

the morning, the next I was in front of the Golden Cross at midday.

At first I was dazzled, and covered my eyes, and there didn't seem the

smallest change; the roar of the Strand and the roar of the reef were

like the same: hark to it now, and you can hear the cabs and buses

rolling and the streets resound! And then at last I could look about,

and there was the old place, and no mistake! With the statues in

the square, and St Martin's-in-the-Fields, and the bobbies, and the

sparrows, and the hacks; and I can't tell you what I felt like. I felt

like crying, I believe, or dancing, or jumping clean over the Nelson

Column. I was like a fellow caught up out of Hell and flung down into

the dandiest part of Heaven. Then I spotted for a hansom with a spanking

horse. "A shilling for yourself, if you're there in twenty minutes!"

said I to the jarvey. He went a good pace, though of course it was a

trifle to the carpet; and in nineteen minutes and a half I was at the

door.'

'What door?' asked the captain.

Oh, a house I know of,' returned Herrick.

The Ebb-Tide