The Other Passenger by John Keir Cross (1944)

…. Do you remember, in Peer Gynt, towards the end of the play, there is the famous storm scene? Peer is on board ship, returning home at last from his adventures. He stands on the deck watching the storm. Then suddenly he becomes aware that someone is standing beside him at the rail—a Stranger. Peer had thought himself the only passenger on board, yet now he falls into conversation with this mysterious travelling-companion. The man bargains with Peer for his body if he should die in the storm. In the end, unsatisfied, he leaves Peer—he goes down the companion way. Peer asks the ship's boy who the Strange Traveller is.

"There is no other traveller," says the boy. "You are the only passenger."

"But someone was with me a moment ago," cries Peer. "Who was it that went down the companion way just now?"

"No one, sir," says the boy. "Only—the ship's dog . . ."

The Other Passenger
John Keir Cross

(1944).
With a new introduction by J. F. Norris

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