John Brown seated himself in the armchair by the door and gazed at the sea.

He gazed and thought until he could bear to think no longer; then he rose and entered the kitchen, where he kindled a fire in the range and filled a kettle with water.

Having thus made ready the sacrificial altar, he took the long-handled dip-net from its nail and descended the bluff to the wharf.
The lobster car, a good-sized affair of laths with a hinged cover closing the opening in its upper surface, was floating under the wharf, to which it was attached by a rope.

Brown knelt on the string-piece and peered down at it.

It floated deep in the water, the tide rippling strongly through it, between the laths.