How often it has been said, “Good for man that he does not know what lies before him.” If he did we fear he would face his duty with very different feelings from those which usually animate¹ him. Certain it is that if Robin² Wright and Sam Shipton had known what was before them—when they stood one breezy afternoon on the ship’s deck, casting glances of admiration³ up at the mountain waves of the southern seas, or taking bird’s-eye views of the valleys between them—their eyes would not have glistened⁴ with such flashes of delight, for the fair prospects⁵ they dreamed of were not destined⁶ to be realised.

 

What these prospects were was made plain by their conversation.

 

“Won’t it be a splendid opportunity, Sam, to become acquainted with all the outs and ins of telegraphy, this laying of lines from island to island in the China Seas?”

 

“It will, indeed, Robin,—a sort of compound or alternating land-and-submarine line. At one time we shall be using palm-trees for posts and carrying wires through the habitations of parrots and monkeys, at another we shall be laying them down among the sharks and coral groves⁷.”

 

“By the way,” said Robin, “is it true that monkeys may prove to be more troublesome to us in these regions than sparrows and crows are at home?”

 

“Of course it is, my boy. Have you never heard that on some of our Indian lines, baboons⁸, vultures, and other heavy creatures have sometimes almost broken down the telegraphs by taking exercise and roosting on the wires?”

 

“Indeed, I hope it won’t be so with us. At all events, sharks won’t be much

分享到：