He recalled his visions of broken-bladed glory, but in the shadow of the impending tumult he suspected them to be impossible pictures.
He sprang from the bunk and began to pace nervously to and fro.

"Good Lord, what's th' matter with me ?" he said aloud.
He felt that in this crisis his laws of life were useless.

Whatever he had learned of himself was here of no avail.

He was an unknown quantity.

He saw that he would again be obliged to experiment as he had in early youth.