To say that Sam Buzza did not relish his task were but feebly to paint his feelings, as, with the paddles under one arm, and the thole-pins in his pocket, he crept down the ladder and pushed off.  Never before had the plash of oars seemed so searching a sound; never had the harbour been so crowded with vessels; and as for buoys, small craft, and floating logs, they bumped against his boat at every stroke.  The moon, too, dogged him with persistent malice, or why was it that he rode always in a pool of light?  The ships’ lamps tracked him as so many eyes.  He carried a bull’s-eye lantern in the bottom of his boat, and the smell of its oil and heated varnish seemed to smell aloud to Heaven.

With heart in mouth, he crossed the line of the ferry, and picked his way among the vessels lying off the jetties.  On one of these vessels somebody was playing a concertina, and as he crept under its counter a voice hailed him in German.  He gave no answer, but pulled quickly on.  And now he was clear again, and nearing Kit’s House under the left bank.  There was no light in any window, he noticed, with a glance over his shoulder.  Still in the shadow, and only pulling out, here and there, to avoid a jutting rock, he gained the creek’s mouth, and rowed softly up until the bulwarks of the old wreck overhung him.

The very silence daunted him now; but it must be gone through.  Thinking to deaden fear by hurry, he caught up the lantern, leapt on board with the painter, fastened it, and crept swiftly towards the poop.

He gained the hatch, and paused to turn the slide of his lantern.  The shaft of light fell down the companion as into a pitch-dark well.  He could feel his heart thumping against his ribs as he began the descent, and jumping with every creak of the rotten boards, while always behind his fright lurked a sickening sense of the guilty foolishness of his errand.

At the ladder’s foot he put his hand to his damp brow, and peered into the cabin.

In a moment his blood froze.  A hoarse cry broke from him.

For there—­straight ahead—­a white face with straining eyes stared into his own!

And then he saw it was but his own reflection in a patch of mirror stuck into the panel opposite.

But the shock of that pallid mask confronting him had already unnerved him utterly.

He drew his eyes away, glanced around, and spied a black portmanteau propped beside a packing-case in the angle made by the wall and the flooring.  In mad haste to reach the open air, but dimly remembering Geraldine’s caution, he grasped the handles, flung a look behind him, and clambered up the ladder again, and out upon deck.

The worst was over; but he could not rest until again in his boat.  As he untied the painter, he noticed the ray of his lantern dancing wildly up and down the opposite bank with the shaking of his hand.  Cursing his forgetfulness, he turned the slide, slipped the lantern into his pocket, and, lowering himself gently with the portmanteau, dropped, seized the paddles, and rowed away as for dear life.