It was not until the second day out, and pretty late in the afternoon, that Foe emerged from his cabin, neatly dressed and hale. (Unlike some Professors I have known, Jack kept his clothes brushed and his hair cut.) As he opened his door his ear caught a slight shuffling sound; whereupon he smiled and stepped quickly down the passage to the turn of the companion way. "No hurry, Farrell!" he called; and Farrell, arrested, turned slowly about on the stair. "Man, you're like the swain in Thackeray:" Although I enter not, Yet round about the spot Oft-times I hover-- "Solicitous, were you?--thought I might be sea-sick?" "I was wondering," Farrell stammered. "Seeing that you didn't turn up at meals--" (Here I must read you a queer remark from the letter in which Jack reported this encounter. Here's the extract:--) "_Do you know, Roddy, that silly simple answer gave me half a fright for a moment, or a fright for half a moment--I forget which. . . . What I had to remember then was my discovery that I had my second keyboard in reserve and could pull certain stops out of him at will. . . . But seriously, I wouldn't, without that power, back myself in this experiment against a man who obstinately persisted in forgiving. It came on me with a flash--and I offer this tribute to the Christian religion_." Foe's answer was, "Very kind of you. As a fact, I have been subsisting on hard biscuit and weak whisky-and-water: though I'm an excellent sailor, as they say. . . . It's a diet that suits me when I'm working hard." "Working?" exclaimed Farrell. "What? Head-work, d'you mean? . . . Doctor, this is the best news you could have told me. If only I could know that you were picking up your interests--getting back to yourself--" Foe took him by the arm. "It's no good, unfortunately," he answered. "Come up on deck, and I'll tell you."