Max Pemberton

“ A little while after this some one cried out that a distant light was that of Newhaven, and very shortly we sighted Beachy Head, and knew that the real danger of our voyage was but beginning.
Often have I wondered what would have been said aboard those passing vessels had they been told that the shadow upon the hither sea was that of Black's ship, and that he himself was aboard her. What panic and terror would have followed that alarm! What a race for a haven! What a wild speeding of the news! But so it is ever in life that reality passes by us in the shadows which our self-assurance casts. ”

“ As for you, Strong, my boy, look out for yourself. I won't say that he'll do you a mischief willingly—that would not be just to him; but this report has put another idol before him, and the old one is forgotten. Let him find the story false, and you'll be on the pedestal again. But if it's true, God help you."
"Meaning," I said, "that he will resent the very weakness which saved my life at the beginning, when they caught me on the Nameless Ship? Well, that's human nature, Osbart, and it's no good my quarrelling with it. If I have no friend on the ship——"
"No friend!" ”

“ Black had told me that my friends were at Leith, and my heart had leaped at the tidings. Roderick, I had said, would move heaven and earth to come at me, and yet he would not forget the story of the Nameless Ship nor believe that it was otherwise than well with me. London must stand for the city of my salvation or the city of my death. There seemed to me no middle course. Either Black would persuade them or his men would kill me.
Despite the danger of the voyage and the mad bravado of it, Black brought the Zero up directly the gale had abated ”

“ Then, the night being clear, with a full round moon, we lifted the hatches once more, and, all rushing to the decks, we lay there to drink in the chill, sweet air as though it were a draught from the well of life itself. ”

“ I see his majestic figure now, great and terrible and menacing, as he emerged from the dripping cloud of fog, and stood at my side to question me. Very thoughtful, harassed, and weary, he asked me what I knew of the Thames and how far I judged us to be from the shore. When I told him a quarter of a mile at a hazard, he seemed to agree with me and to be pleased that he could do so.
"Aye," he said, "the young ears want no tuning. Yon's Canvey Island, and you hear the trains to London. ”