It was in such talks, which we were both eager to repeat, that I first heard the names--first fell under the spell--of the islands; and it was from one of the first of them that I returned (a happy man) with _Omoo_ under one arm, and my friend's own adventures under the other.
The second incident was more dramatic, and had, besides, a bearing on my future.

I was standing, one day, near a boat-landing under Telegraph Hill.

A large barque, perhaps of eighteen hundred tons, was coming more than usually close about the point to reach her moorings; and I was observing her with languid inattention, when I observed two men to stride across the bulwarks, drop into a shore boat, and, violently dispossessing the boatman of his oars, pull toward the landing where I stood.

In a surprisingly short time they came tearing up the steps; and I could see that both were too well dressed to be foremast hands--the first even with research, and both, and specially the first, appeared under the empire of some strong emotion.
"Nearest police office!" cried the leader.
"This way," said I, immediately falling in with their precipitate pace.
"What's wrong?
What ship is that ?" "That's the Gleaner," he replied.

"I am chief officer, this gentleman's third; and we've to get in our depositions before the crew.