The sufficient answer was all around us; where the mist was there could be no wind; in grumbling the voices died away.
The rest of what passed seems even now a strange dream that I can hardly follow, whose issue alone I know, which I can recover only dimly and vaguely in my memory.

I was there in the stern, leaning over, listening to the soft sound of the sea as Thomas Lie's boat rolled lazily from side to side and the water murmured gently under the gentle stroke.

Then came voices again just by my shoulder.

I did not move.

I knew the tones that spoke, the persuasive commanding tones hard to resist, apt to compel.