He was quite serious.
"I should not like to say off-hand how much of that there was," he pursued with amusing caution.

"But there was a situation, tense enough for the signs of it to give many surprises to Mr.Powell--neither of them shocking in itself, but with a cumulative effect which made the whole unforgettable in the detail of its progress.

And the first surprise came very soon, when the explosives (to which he owed his sudden chance of engagement)--dynamite in cases and blasting powder in barrels--taken on board, main hatch battened for sea, cook restored to his functions in the galley, anchor fished and the tug ahead, rounding the South Foreland, and with the sun sinking clear and red down the purple vista of the channel, he went on the poop, on duty, it is true, but with time to take the first freer breath in the busy day of departure.

The pilot was still on board, who gave him first a silent glance, and then passed an insignificant remark before resuming his lounging to and fro between the steering wheel and the binnacle.

Powell took his station modestly at the break of the poop.