who s who and i said to myself she was bom in cambridge and he is twenty car old and then i said twenty seven years old and free and fancy free but how did i know she was fancy free and the pang of new bom jealousy put all incredulity to flight there was no doubt about it i was jealous therefore i loved and the woman i loved was i van was in love i and the doubt assailed me not that i was afraid of it however or reluctant to meet it on the contrary that i was to the most pronounced degree my had always recognized and love as the greatest thing in the world the aim and the summit of bein the most exquisite pitch of joy and happiness to which life could thrill the thing of all things to be hailed and wc and taken into the heart but now that it t l the sea wolf i could not believe i could not be so fortunate it was too good too good to be true s lines came into my head i wandered all these years among a world of women seeking you and then i had ceased seeking it was not for me this greatest thing in the world i had decided was right i was an monster a strange creature capable of in sensations only of the mind and though i had been surrounded by women all my days my appreciation of them had been and nothing more i had actually at times considered myself outside the pale a fellow denied the eternal or the passing passions i saw and understood so well in others and now it had come of and it had come in what could have been no less than an ecstasy i left my post at the head of the and started along the deck murmuring to myself those beautiful lines of mrs i lived with visions for my company instead of men and women years ago and found gentle mates nor thought to know a sweeter music than they played to me but the sweeter music was playing in my ears and i was blind and to all about me the sharp voice of wolf aroused me what the hell are you up to he was demanding i had strayed forward where the sailors were painting and i came to myself to find my advancing foot on the verge of a paint pot sleep walking � what he no i retorted and continued my walk if had occurred chapter xxiv among the most vivid memories of my life arc those of i the events on the occurred the forty j rs succeeding the discovery of my love for i who had lived my life in quiet places only to enter at the � of thirty five upon a of the most adventure i could have imagined never bad incident and excitement crammed into any forty of my experience nor can i quite close my cars to a small voice of pride which tells me i did not do so badly all things considered to begin with at the midday dinner wolf informed the hunters that they were to eat in the it was an thing on where it is the custom for the hunters to rank as officers he gave do reason but his motive was obvious enough and smoke had been displaying a gallantry toward ludicrous in itself and to her but to him evidently distasteful the announcement was received with black silence though the other four hunters glanced significantly nt who had been the cause of their k quiet as was his way gave no sign but the darkly across smoke s forehead and he half his mouth to speak wolf was waiting for him the glitter in his eyes but closed his mouth again without having said anything s l the sea wolf anything to say the other demanded it was a challenge but smoke refused to accept it about what he asked so innocently that wolf was disconcerted while the others smiled oh nothing wolf said i just thought you might want to register a kick about what asked the smoke smoke s mates were now smiling his captain could have killed him and i doubt not that blood would have flowed had not been present for that matter it was her presence which enabled smoke to act as he did he was too discreet and cautious a man to wolf s anger at a time when that anger could be expressed in terms stronger than words i was in fear that a struggle might take place but a cry from the made it easy for the situation to save itself smoke ho the cry came down the open way how s it bear wolf called up dead sir maybe it s a russian suggested his words brought anxiety into the faces of the other hunters a russian could mean but one thi ny � a the hunters never more than roughly aware of the position of the ship nevertheless knew that we were close to the boundaries of the forbidden sea while wolf s record as a was notorious all eyes upon him we re dead safe he assured them with a laugh no salt mines this time smoke but i ll tell you what � ih lay odds of five to one it s the no one accepted his offer and he went on in which event lay ten to one there s trouble up the no you spoke up i t object to losing my money but i like to get a run for tt anyway there never was a time when there wasn t trouble when you and that brother of yours got together and i ll lay twenty to one on that a smile followed in which t joined and the dinner went on smoothly thanks to 