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doubt, just come from below, was standing. He had slipped the hawser and
was working the tiller. Looking only to the rudder, as befitted the
combined phlegm of a Dutchman and a sailor, listening to nothing but the
wind and the water, bending against the resistance of the tiller, as he
worked it to port or starboard, he looked in the gloom of the after-deck
like a phantom bearing a beam upon its shoulder. He was alone there. So
long as they were in the river the other sailors were not required. In a
few minutes the vessel was in the centre of the current, with which she
drifted without rolling or pitching. The Thames, little disturbed by the
ebb, was calm. Carried onwards by the tide, the vessel made rapid way.
Behind her the black scenery of London was fading in the mist.
Ursus went on talking.
"Never mind, I will give her digitalis. I am afraid that delirium will
supervene. She perspires in the palms of her hands. What sin can we have
committed in the sight of God? How quickly has all this misery come upon
us! Hideous rapidity of evil! A stone falls. It has claws. It is the
hawk swooping on the lark. It is destiny. There you lie, my sweet child!
One comes to London. One says: What a fine city! What fine buildings!
Southwark is a magnificent suburb. One settles there. But now they are
horrid places. What would you have me do there? I am going to leave.
This is the 30th of April. I always distrusted the month of April. There
are but two lucky days in April, the 5th and the 27th; and four unlucky
ones--the 10th, the 20th, the 29th, and the 30th. This has been placed
beyond doubt by the calculations of Cardan. I wish this day were over.
Departure is a comfort. At dawn we shall be at Gravesend, and to-morrow
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