True, every one was perhaps glad when
silence succeeded that all too appropriate music; true,
Mac's apology and subsequent behaviour rather raised
him in the opinion of his fellow-castaways. But the
discordant note had been struck, and its harmonics
tingled in the brain. In that savage, houseless isle,
the passions of man had sounded, if only for the
moment, and all men trembled at the possibilities of
horror.
It was determined to stand watch and watch in case of
passing vessels; and Tommy, on fire with an idea,
volunteered to stand the first. The rest crawled under
the tent, and were soon enjoying that comfortable gift
of sleep, which comes everywhere and to all men,
quenching anxieties and speeding time. And no sooner
were all settled, no sooner had the drone of many
snorers begun to mingle with and overcome the surf,
than Tommy stole from his post with the case of sherry,
and dropped it in a quiet cove in a fathom of water.
But the stormy inconstancy of Mac's behaviour had no
connection with a gill or two of wine; his passions,
angry and otherwise, were on a different sail-plan from
his neighbours'; and there were possibilities of good
and evil in that hybrid Celt beyond their prophecy.
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