He seemed as vexed as myself at our failure, and would hardly listen to my thanks.  He said it was “nothings,” and invited me on the spot to come on board his ship and drink a glass of beer with him.  We poked sceptically for a while amongst the bushes, peered without conviction into a ditch or two.  There was not a sound:  patches of slime glimmered feebly amongst the reeds.  Slowly we trudged back, drooping under the thin sickle of the moon, and I heard him mutter to himself, “Himmel!  Zwei und dreissig Pfund!” He was impressed by the figure of my loss.  For a long time we had ceased to hear the mate’s whoops and yells.

Then he said to me, “Everybody has his troubles,” and as we went on remarked that he would never have known anything of mine hadn’t he by an extraordinary chance been detained on shore by Captain Falk.  He didn’t like to stay late ashore—­he added with a sigh.  The something doleful in his tone I put to his sympathy with my misfortune, of course.

On board the Diana Mrs. Hermann’s fine eyes expressed much interest and commiseration.  We had found the two women sewing face to face under the open skylight in the strong glare of the lamp.  Hermann walked in first, starting in the very doorway to pull off his coat, and encouraging me with loud, hospitable ejaculations:  “Come in!  This way!  Come in, captain!” At once, coat in hand, he began to tell his wife all about it.  Mrs. Hermann put the palms of her plump hands together; I smiled and bowed with a heavy heart:  the niece got up from her sewing to bring Hermann’s slippers and his embroidered calotte, which he assumed pontifically, talking (about me) all the time.  Billows of white stuff lay between the chairs on the cabin floor; I caught the words “Zwei und dreissig Pfund” repeated several times, and presently came the beer, which seemed delicious to my throat, parched with running and the emotions of the chase.

I didn’t get away till well past midnight, long after the women had retired.  Hermann had been trading in the East for three years or more, carrying freights of rice and timber mostly.  His ship was well known in all the ports from Vladivostok to Singapore.  She was his own property.  The profits had been moderate, but the trade answered well enough while the children were small yet.  In another year or so he hoped he would be able to sell the old Diana to a firm in Japan for a fair price.  He intended to return home, to Bremen, by mail boat, second class, with Mrs. Hermann and the children.  He told me all this stolidly, with slow puffs at his pipe.  I was sorry when knocking the ashes out he began to rub his eyes.  I would have sat with him till morning.  What had I to hurry on board my own ship for?  To face the broken rifled drawer in my state-room.  Ugh!  The very thought made me feel unwell.