EPILOGUE.
I am writing these last few lines, telling of the end of my youthful wanderings, by an open window that looks out across the sunlit sea, where the Goodwins sleep peacefully amidst the summer blue, and the idle shipping lingers in the Downs by the hazy Sandwich shore.
Down in the garden I can see a white-haired old man sitting on a bench enjoying a cigarette which the deft fingers of Isabel have just rolled and lit for him. The pair are watching a burly old man who is rigging a flagstaff with the help of a tall, sturdy boy; and as the former turns to his assistant with a wry, genial smile, I see that the brown, wrinkled face is that of my old friend Captain Bithery.
My papers lie upon the ancient desk that my father-in-law brought with him when he left Africa for good—the desk on which good Master Barnabas Hogg was wont to write up his “Journall,” when Charles the First was King; and I look around upon other mementoes of the stirring days of my youth. And especially upon a little cotton bag that hangs on the wall hard by. In it is a tablet of baked clay, on one side of which is scratched in rough Arabic characters, “Praise be to God,” while the other bears the inscription, in my wife’s handwriting, “Aminé loveth thee.”
[The End]
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
Though not without flaws, the edition hosted on Project Gutenberg Australia (publisher and date not given) has been cautiously consulted for most of the changes listed below.
Minor spelling inconsistencies (e.g. Jellah-Coffee/Jella-Koffi/Jella Koffi, pitifull/pitiful, shade-tree/shade tree, etc.) have largely been preserved.
Alterations to the text:
Abandon the use of drop-caps.
Place the two brief footnotes inline with the text.
Punctuation: fix some quotation mark pairings/nestings, and a few missing periods and commas.
[Chapter I]
“before we could get about to speak him he was off” add to after speak.
“ye great, fat, lazy, lollopin, black divil!” change the comma after lollopin to an apostrophe.
[Chapter II]
Change “he sung out in his mellow Irish baritone” to sang.
[Chapter III]
“the Captain secured for me the assistance of Vandepuye” to Vanderpuye.
[Chapter VII]
“the massive form of Captain Bithery apeared in the doorway” to appeared.
(“Well,” said the Skipper gruffly, “you know your own mind) to skipper.
[Chapter IX]
(“What you want, boy?” demanded Pereira sharply.) add do after What.
“purchased as “curios” from Hausa mechants: a riga or gown” of merchants.
[Chapter XI]
“obtained a start of fully three quarters of an hour before” to three-quarters.
[Chapter XII]
“when the civilisation of the west was yet unborn” to West.
[Chapter XIII]
“The pool was evidently of considerable depth, even close in shore” to inshore.
[Chapter XIV]
“Musa and Dam Bornu held the weeping giant by the arms that” to Dam-Bornu.
[Chapter XV]
“struck the hard floor with the sound of a pavior’s rammer” to hammer.
[Chapter XVII]
“especally as I was evidently not a native of that part” to especially.
“No one will have him at a gift.” to as.
[Chapter XX]
(“We will sup by ourslves,” Aminé put in quickly,) to ourselves.
[Chapter XXI]
(thou hast come back to us,” said Al-hassan, “for it was I) to Alhassan.
[Chapter XXII]
“armed with one of my knives, moved down the high elephant grass” to mowed.
[Chapter XXIV]
“my deliverance seemed to come within measureable distance” to measurable.
[Chapter XXV]
“I ran the canoe in shore where a small, stout tree grew close” to inshore.
[Chapter XXVI]
“the pile of foaming water was sweeping in shore” to inshore.
“blow after blow, and tended to sweep me in shore.” to inshore.
[Chapter XXVIII]
(“You may hear me say it now.” said she, “as you) change the period to a comma.
[End of text]