The traveler was able to produce a sovereign from a belt which he wore round his waist—a proceeding which seemed to stimulate the curiosity of his fellow traveler in the highest degree—and paid it over without a murmur. The official wrote out a receipt with an absurd stump of pencil.
"Thank you, mister," said the young man.
The train moved on.
A few minutes later it had come to the end of a long and wearisome journey. The old lady was the first to leave the carriage. She was assisted in doing so by the ministrations of a very tall and dignified footman.
As the Sailor stepped to the platform, bag in hand, there was a great clock straight before him pointing to the hour of midnight. Where was he? He had never heard of Marylebone. It might be England, it might be Scotland; in his present state of mind it might be anywhere.
"Keb, sir?" The inquiry surged all round him, but the Sailor did not want a cab.
His first feeling as he stood on the platform of that immense station was one of sheer bewilderment. He didn't know where he was, he had nowhere to go, he had no plans. An intense loneliness came over him again. Soon, however, it was merged in the exhilaration of the atmosphere around him. This was a different place from Blackhampton; it was larger, more vital, more mysterious.
As he walked slowly down the platform the importance of everything seemed to increase. He would have to think things out a bit, although just now any kind of thinking was torment.
He had learned much during his sixteen months at Blackhampton, not only in regard to the world in which he lived, but also—and as he moved down the platform with his bag the thought gave him a thrill of joy—to read and write. He felt these things, bought and paid for at a heavy cost, were so infinitely precious that he need not fear the future.
Straight before his eyes was the legend, "Cloak Room." Sixteen months ago it would have been High Dutch. But the new knowledge told him it was the place to leave your bag. Accordingly, he went and left it, paid his twopence, and put the ticket in exchange carefully in his belt, where nineteen sovereigns and twelve half-sovereigns were secure.