funk

[The helmsman] steered with no end of a swagger while you were by; but if he lost sight of you, he became instantly the prey of an abject funk […]

It is the long probation in the old way of teaching that fellows funk at or makes funks of them and their slow pace, almost up to the end of that probation, all who teach themselves are in a worse predicament as the hands with them are made the principle propellors instead of the feet.