“Father Brown was not in the mood for adventure. He had recently fallen ill from overwork, and when he began to recover, his friend Flambeau took the priest on a cruise on a small yacht in company with Cecil Fanshawe, a young Cornish squire and a great lover of local coastal scenery. But Father Brown was still quite weak. Sailing did not please him very much, and although he was not one of the whiners or grumblers, he could not yet rise above polite tolerance towards his companions. When they praised ragged clouds against a purple sunset or jagged volcanic rocks, he politely agreed with them. When Flambeau pointed to a rock shaped like a dragon, he nodded, and when Fanshawe pointed even more enthusiastically to a rock that resembled the figure of Merlin, he gestured his agreement. When Flambeau asked if it was appropriate to call the rocky gate above the winding river the gateway to Fairyland, he replied “yes, of course.” He listened to important matters and trivialities with equal dispassionate concentration. He had heard that the rocky coast threatened death to all but the most vigilant sailors, and had heard that the ship's cat had recently fallen asleep. He heard that Flambeau couldn’t find his mouthpiece, and heard the navigator say the saying: “If you keep your eyes open, you’ll be home, if you blink, you’ll go down.” He heard Flambeau tell Fanshawe that this was no doubt a call to be vigilant and keep his eyes open. He heard Fanshawe answer Flambeau that this did not really mean what it seemed: when the navigator sees two shore lights on either side of him, one nearby and the other in the distance, then the ship is moving along the right channel. But if one fire is hidden behind another, then the ship goes to the rocks. Fanshawe added that his romantic land abounded in such tales and quaint idioms. He even compared this corner of Cornwall with Devonshire as a contender for Elizabethan seafaring laurels. These bays and islets bred captains compared to whom Francis Drake himself would have seemed like a land rat...”