It was indeed strange to see how, with every interview, the Captain grew fiercer and fiercer and sharper and sharper.

He made no allusions now to "'is little nipper," said nothing about that holy soul his mother, and never mentioned his liking for Jeremy.

There was evidently something on his mind, and if he had seemed mysterious at their first meeting it was nothing to the secrecy that he practised now.
And yet, in spite of all this, his hold over Jeremy grew and grew.

That dream of the bending white road was always with Jeremy.

He could think of nothing but the Captain, and while he was certainly afraid and would jump at the slightest sound, he was also certainly excited beyond all earlier experience.