126 The Light That Failed “Ye that love us, can ye move us? She is dearer than ye; And your sleep will be the sweeter,’ Said The Men of the Sea.” The rough words beat like the blows of the waves on the bows of the rickety boat from Lima in the days when Dick was mixing paints, making love, drawing devils and angels in the half dark, and wondering whether the next minute would put the Italian captain’s knife between his shoulder-blades. And the gofever which is more real than many doctors’ diseases, waked and raged, urging him who loved Maisie beyond anything in the world, to go away and taste the old hot, unregenerate life again, — to scuffle, swear, gamble, and love light loves with his fellows; to take ship and know the sea once more, and by her beget pictures; to talk to Binat among the sands of Port Said while Yellow Tina mixed the drinks; to hear the crackle of musketry, and see the smoke roll outward, thin and thicken again till the shining black faces came through, and in that hell every man was strictly responsible for his own head, and his own alone, and struck with an unfettered arm. It was impossible, utterly impossible, but — “Oh, our fathers in the churchyard, She is older than ye, And our graves will be the greener,’ Said The Men of the Sea.” “What zs there to hinder?” said Torpenhow, in the long hush that followed the song. “You said a little time since that you wouldn’t come for a walk round the world, Torp.” “That was months ago, and I only objected to your making money for traveling expenses. You’ve shot your bolt here and it has gone home. Go away and do some