His eyes grew
keener from long scanning of the horizon; he knew where to look
for sails, from the creeping coastwise schooner to the far-rounding
merchantman from Cape Horn. He knew the faint line of haze that
indicated the steamer long before her masts and funnels became visible.
He saw no soul except the solitary boatman of the little "plunger,"
who landed his weekly provisions at a small cove hard by. The boatman
thought his secretiveness and reticence only the surliness of his
nation, and cared little for a man who never asked for the news, and to
whom he brought no letters. The long nights which wrapped the cabin in
sea-fog, and at first seemed to heighten the exile's sense of security,
by degrees, however, became monotonous, and incited an odd restlessness,
which he was wont to oppose by whiskey,--allowed as a part of his
stores,--which, while it dulled his sensibilities, he, however, never
permitted to interfere with his mechanical duties.
He had been there five months, and the hills on the opposite shore
between Tamalpais were already beginning to show their russet yellow
sides.
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