"You had a close shave the other night," one of the boatmen remarked to Frank, as a few days after the adventure he strolled down with Ruthven and Handcock to talk to the boatman whose boat had been lost, "a very narrow shave.

I had one out there myself when I was just about your age, nigh forty years ago.

I went out for a sail with my father in his fishing boat, and I didn't come back for three years.

That was the only long voyage I ever went.

I've been sticking to fishing ever since." "How was it you were away three years ?" Handcock asked, "and what was the adventure?
Tell us about it." "Well, it's rather a long yarn," the boatman said.
"Well, your best plan, Jack," Ruthven said, putting his hand in his pocket and bringing out sixpence, "will be for you to go across the road and wet your whistle before you begin." "Thank ye, young gentleman.