"
"It is well for you and good for myself, Mr Cringle, that something
weighs heavy at my heart at this moment, and that there is that about
you which, notwithstanding your ill--timed jesting, commands my respect,
and engages my goodwill--had it not been so, you would have been
alongside of poor Paul at this moment." He leant his arms upon the
table, and gazed intensely on my face as he continued in a solemn
tremulous tone--"Do you believe in auguries, Mr Cringle? Do you believe
that coming events cast their shadows before?'"--oh, that little Wiggy
Campbell had been beside me to have seen the figure and face of the man
who now quoted him!
"Yes, I do, it is part of the creed of every sailor to do so; I do
believe that people have had forewarnings of peril to themselves or
their friends."
"Then what do you think of the mate beckoning me with his dead hand to
follow him?"
"Why, you are raving, Obed; you saw that he had been much convulsed, and
that the limb, from the contraction of the sinews, was forcibly kept
down in the position it broke loose from--the spunyarn gave way, and of
course it started up--nothing wonderful in all this although it did at
the time somewhat startle me, I confess."
"It may be so, it may be so. I don't know," rejoined he, "but taken
along with what I saw before"--Here his voice sank into so hollow and
sepulchral a tone as to be almost unintelligible. "But there is no use
in arguing on the subject.
Pages:
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279