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XIV . The River It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold . Herbert and Startop rowed , and I steered . We picked up Magwitch at the stairs near Mill Pond Bank . He was wrapped in a dark cloak , and he looked like a river pilot . He sat in the boat as calmly as if we were going on a pleasure trip . “ If you knew , dear boy , ” he said , “ what it is to sit here alongside of my dear boy and have my smoke , after having been day by day between four walls , you’d envy me . ” We rowed all day down the river , past the ships and the docks and the busy wharves , until the river grew wide and the shores were low and lonely . At night we stayed at a poor little inn on the shore . The landlord told us that a strange boat with four rowers and two other men had been seen on the river . That made us very uneasy , and none of us slept well . The next afternoon we rowed out to meet the steamer . We could see her smoke , and then the steamer herself coming towards us . At that moment a boat which had been hidden by the shore came out quickly and moved alongside us . In it sat a police officer and a man wrapped in a cloak . The cloaked man was shaking , as if he were in a fever . “ You have a returned transport there , ” said the officer . “ His name is Abel Magwitch , otherwise Provis . I call upon that man to surrender , and on you to assist . ” At the same moment the steamer came down upon us with a great noise . Magwitch leaned across and pulled the cloak from the neck of the shaking man in the other boat . It was Compeyson . At once the steamer struck us , our boat turned over , and I was in the cold water . When I was pulled into the police boat , Herbert and Startop were there too . But Magwitch and Compeyson had gone . After a long time we saw a dark shape swimming towards us . It was Magwitch , and he was badly hurt in the chest and had a deep cut in the head . He was taken on board and chained at once . He told me quietly that he and Compeyson had gone down together , locked in each other’s arms , under the boat . Compeyson had been drowned , and Magwitch had struggled free . From that moment I never left Magwitch’s side if I could help it . In the boat , as he lay there hurt and chained , I held his hand . All my horror of him had melted away . I only saw a man who had meant to be my friend , who had felt warmly and gratefully towards me for years , and who had been much better to me than I had been to Joe . “ Dear boy , ” he said , “ I’m quite content to take my chance . I’ve seen my boy , and he can be a gentleman without me . ” I knew that all his money would now go to the Crown , because he was a criminal . Mr Jaggers was angry that I had let it be lost . But I did not care about the money . I was only afraid that Magwitch would guess I had lost it , and I never let him know .
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