He was a young man, and a gay salutation of his unemployed hand toward the assembled people--as if he were sure that they were all friends--stamped him as the light-hearted singer, so different from the Farlingford men, so strongly contrasted to his hearers, who nevertheless jerked their heads sideways in response.

He had, it seemed, rightly gauged the feelings of these cold East Anglians.

They were his friends.
River Andrew's boat was alongside "The Last Hope" now.

Some one had thrown him a rope, which he had passed under his bow thwart and now held with one hand, while with the other he kept his distance from the tarry side of the ship.

There was a pause until the schooner felt her moorings, then Captain Clubbe looked over the side and nodded a curt salutation to River Andrew, bidding him, by the same gesture, wait a minute until he had donned his shore-going jacket.