PART V: The Vanishing Captain
His good deed done, by set of sun
The Frenchman was back at sea,
Tacking toward Les Douvres rocks
To answer Lethierry’s plea.
At dawn against the horizon
A majestic ‘H’ did rise:
The pillars held Durande aloft
As if boasting of their prize.
In breaking light, the sloop drew close
Beneath the pillars’ height –
The rocks were wet as wrestlers who
Still sweated from a fight.
Those sides that rose so dark and steep
Now gleamed like moonlit armour:
How could he bring the engine down
Yet manage not to harm her?
And where had Captain Clubin gone,
The skipper of Durande,
Who refused to leave the steamer
Till he brought her back to land?
The crew and all aboard Durande
To lifeboat he had banished,
But left alone upon those rocks
By morning he had vanished.
None yet suspected the skipper
Had been seduced by sin –
None knew he’d cast aside virtue
As snakes do shed their skin…
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A really dramatic illustration for this descriptive section in which the reader discovers the scale of the task facing Gilliat; meanwhile, the mystery surrounding Durande's captain deepens... more tomorrow!
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