"Yes. I shall try to get back to the ship. If I’m not aboard at the next high tide, though, then you and Minerva must leave me ." Dappa glanced up toward the window and saw the worst thing he could have seen: the tout who had been handing out the libels had hunted them through the crowd, and was now pressing his shiny face against the window. He met Dappa’s eye. Dappa felt the way he had once in Africa, a little boy playing near the river, when he had looked up and seen the striped eye of a crocodile looking back at him. It was as if a thousand ancestors were standing round him in a great invisible chorus, screaming, "Run! Run!" And run he would have, but for the knowledge that he was the only black man in a mile, and could never run far or fast enough.