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THE STEEL FLEA
for this is not like your Gulf of Finland, but this is the regular Dryland Sea."[1]
"That makes no difference," he replied; "'tis all the same to me where I die; God's will be done. But I desire to return to my native land as speedily as may be, because otherwise I may acquire a sort of madness."
They did not detain him by force; they crammed him with food, rewarded him with money, gave him gifts to remember them by—a golden watch with a repeater[2]—and against the sea chill on his late autumn road they gave him a frieze great-coat, with a weather-hood for his head. They clothed the left-handed man very warmly, and conducted him to a ship which was due
- ↑ The North Sea. The Mediterranean, literally translated, is "Sredizemnoe"—Midland. Therefore the old gunsmith twists this into "Tverdezemnoe."
- ↑ The old gunsmith uses a word which sounds fairly right, but means "a disturber."
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