'That was what it was!' cried Herrick. 'I thought they seemed

unusually big, and I remember now I had to go to the

money-changers at Charing Cross and get English silver.'

'O, you went there?' said the clerk. 'Wot did you do? Bet you

had a B. and S.!'

'Well, you see, it was just as the old boy said--like the cut of

a whip,' said Herrick. 'The one minute I was here on the beach

at three in the morning, the next I was in front of the Golden

Cross at midday. At first I was dazzled, and covered my eyes,

and there didn't seem the smallest change; the roar of the Strand

and the roar of the reef were like the same: hark to it now, and

you can hear the cabs and buses rolling and the streets resound!

And then at last I could look about, and there was the old place,

and no mistake! With the statues in the square, and St Martin's-

in-the-Fields, and the bobbies, and the sparrows, and the hacks;

and I can't tell you what I felt like. I felt like crying, I

believe, or dancing, or jumping clean over the Nelson Column. I

was like a fellow caught up out of Hell and flung down into the

dandiest part of Heaven. Then I spotted for a hansom with a

spanking horse. "A shilling for yourself, if you're there in

twenty minutes!" said I to the jarvey. He went a good pace,

though of course it was a trifle to the carpet; and in nineteen

minutes and a half I was at the door.'

'What door?' asked the captain.

'Oh, a house I know of,' returned Herrick.

'But it was a public-house!' cried the clerk--only these were

not his words. 'And w'y didn't you take the carpet there instead

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