"
Then there was a noise in the hall outside, but I went on:
"It's a good life," I says, and I looked around on both sides of me,
and I saw no Madge McCulloch and no Billy Corliss. Nothing but empty
chairs, and two open doors behind me.
I says, "That's a singular coincidence."
By the noise in the hall I judged Andrew McCulloch was come back
unexpected, and I judged he might come in ambitious and inquiring,
and not easy to take as he came. I started for the open doors, and
got through one of them hasty, and shut it behind. It was soon enough
to escape Andrew, and too soon to see if it was the right door. It
was dark there except for the starlight through a window, showing
crockery on shelves. The place was no more than a pantry.
I've been in different circumstances by sea and land, but I didn't
recollect at that moment ever being planted in just those, and it
seemed to me a couple, that could plant an experienced seaman that
way must be ingenious as well as open-minded. I heard Andrew
McCulloch talking to himself like the forerunnings of an earthquake,
and I says:
"An experienced seaman might get out, but not that way. Experienced
seamen don't put off on the windward side.
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