They passed by my bush at the double. The galley had
been sent away for more; and the woman sat all alone crying at the end
of the pier, with the lantern standing on the ground near her.
"Then suddenly I saw in the light at the end of the pier the red
pantaloons of two more men. I was overcome with astonishment. They,
too, started off at a run. Their tunics flapped unbuttoned and they were
bare-headed. One of them panted out to the other, 'Straight on, straight
on!'
"Where on earth did they spring from, I wondered. Slowly I walked down
the short pier. I saw the woman's form shaken by sobs and heard her
moaning more and more distinctly, 'Oh, my man! my poor man! my poor
man!' I stole on quietly. She could neither hear nor see anything. She
had thrown her apron over her head and was rocking herself to and fro in
her grief. But I remarked a small boat fastened to the end of the pier.
"Those two men--they looked like sous-officiers--must have come in it,
after being too late, I suppose, for the galley. It is incredible that
they should have thus broken the regulations from a sense of duty.
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