London River

a drizzle, thin and eternal, as if the rain were no more than the shadow cast by a sky as unchanging as poverty. When real night comes, then the street lamps dissolve ochreous hollows in the murk. I

all. He came towards me, with his hands in his pockets and his coat collar up. He turned on me briskly, with a sudden decision, when he drew level. Water dripped from the peak of his cap, and his clothes were heavy and dark with it. He spoke. "Mister, could ye give m

ng him the battered aspect of ancient sin. His sinister appearance would have frightened any timid lady if he had stopped her in such a street, on such a day, with nobody about but a lost dog, and the houses, it could be supposed, deserted, or their inmates secluded in an abandonment to misery. And, taking another glance at him, I thought it probable, fro

" I suggested. "Why

m that he had, after all, stopped a fool. He took his cap off, and flung a shower from it-it had be

gone aboard, and that contained all his estate. The skipper, to be sure of his man, had taken care of his discharge bo

er. Look here. I reckon you know her." He plunged an eager hand into an inner pocket. "Ever heard of Angel Light? She's on the stage. It's a fact. She showed me her name herself on a programme last night. There y

my lapel confidentially. "Guv'nor," he said, "if I could find the swab as took my money,

hat late last night. Both had gone. The policeman at the gate told him so. The dock was there again this morning, but a different policeman; and whatever improbable world the dock and the policeman of midnight

ard made audible the unseen life of the place. We had the coffee-shop to ourselves. On the counter a jam roll was derelict. Some crumpled and greasy newspapers sprawled on the benches. The outcast squeezed into a corner of a bench, and a stout and elderly matron appeared, drying her bare arms on her apron, and looked at us with annoyance. My friend seized her hand, patted it, and addressed her in terms of extravagant endearment. She spoke to him about that. But food came; and as he ate-how he ate!-I waited, looking into my own mug of tepid brown slop at twopence the pint. T

I knew once, when Poplar was salt. The lost sailor himself was insignificant. What was he? A deck hand; one who tarred iron, and could take a

s silent for a time, and we listened together to the sound of rivets going home. "That's right

isel through her. But they only put in what they were paid for, not what she wanted. The old Starlight. She wouldn't have gone in then but for a bump she got. Do you know old Jackson? Live

for her again when she was ready. This used to be my home, Poplar, before I married that Cardiff woman. Do you know Poplar at all? Poplar's all right. W

he was a wet ship. 'We're running into it,' said old Jackson to th

to shift the boilers. We reckoned something was coming all right. Then when it began to blow, from dead ahead, the old man wouldn't ease her. That was like old Jackson. It makes you think of your comfortable little home, watching them big grey-backs running by your ship, and no hot grub because the galley's flooded. The Wolf was only two days behind us, and we had all the way to go. It was lively, guv'nor. The third

hear the old man shouting. The engines had stopped. I fell over s

e a bird to get about her. The crowd looked blue enough when they saw the falls flying around at daylight, and only bits of boats. It wa

. I never seen anything I liked better than that. Then the Chief came up, and I saw him talking to the old man. The old man climbed round to us. 'Now, lads,' he sa

he old man. The old man, he stood looking down at the deck. Nobody said anything for a spell. Then a fireman shot through a companion on all fours, scrambled to the bulwarks, and look

g cold, too. At sun-up I could see she might pitch under at any time. She was about awash. The old man came to me and the steward, and said:

came up, and put out her boats. We had to lower the drunks into them. I left in the last boat with the old man. 'Jim,' he said, looking at her as we left her, 'she's got no more than five minutes now.

xt door the steady, continuous hammering in the dry-dock was heard a