"You don't think fifteen feet six would be far out?"
"No, sir. That's as near as can be. But there's the wind to be taken into account when you come to inches."
"How near were you ever to the Whale's Mouth--I mean, what was the nearest?"
"As close as that," he answered, stretching out his hand at arm's length. He added significantly--"On the ebb."
"How wide is the Mouth?"
"I couldn't say exactly, sir. It's a place we're rather shy of, as you know. I dare say it's as big as this room."
"You couldn't pull a yawl into it?"
"God forbid!" said the man devoutly. "Two did go in, and one was swallowed up into the bowels of the land, and the other was broken into ten thousand splinters. Pull a yawl in there! I'd go to the Canary Islands for life first."
"I don't mean to say would you, but could you?"
"No."