"D'you mean takin a'ter him?"
"I mean to try, sir," said the boy huskily.
In the darkness a hand gripped his.
CHAPTER V
REUBEN BONIFACE'S STORY
I
Clear of the harbour, the boy's hat blew overboard.
He tasted his lips, and found them salt.
Never at sea before, yet somehow it was all strangely familiar, and strangely dear.
The feel of the ship, alive beneath his feet; the lift, the plunge, the swaying rhythm of the bows; the roll of the masts against a patch of stars—there was music in them all; a music that stirred his heart; the music of inherited Memory.