prepared for us. The cook, having put the dishes upon the table, left us to ourselves; and as we sat close together we were able to talk freely without fear of our subdued voices penetrating to any attentive ear that might be lurking at the skylight. told Miss Grant it would need very little consideration to assure us both that, if we valued our lives, we must make no effort to escape by the hazard of such a deed of violence as that of gagging and pinioning the man at the wheel. Failure, I said, must lead to my being murdered out of hand, and then she Iwas to think of herself as alone with a lawless body of people, who, on the strength of our attempt, would hold themselves discharged from the obligation they now recognized to keep their distance and treat us civilly.

She shuddered at this. "It is the dread," she exclaimed, pressing her hand to her forehead, "of anything happening that might separate us, that might end in leaving me alone with these men-it is this dread, Mr. Musgrave, which makes me talk of attempting to escape whilst we are together, and whilst I feel my spirit equal to any call that you can make upon it. The prospect of an open boat is dreadful, I admit, but it would be paradise in comparison to my finding myself alone in this brig."

"It is because we must remain together, come what may," said I, speaking with a degree of emphasis and passion, as I can now recall, to which I have little doubt in another mood her eyes would have sank with such a little trembling play of smile on her lips as I had once before noticed, "that I dare not risk our being separated by so much as the movement of a finger, without feeling sure of the result. Besides," I continued, sinking my voice again, "even if we should agree to attempt to escape by the boat, it would be better to wait until we had closed the Cuba coast than commit ourselves to the heart of the great solitude we are now in. You have been shocked by the cruelty of

the men in refusing help to the people of the brigantine. Their behaviour has excited a new dread of them in you. You have suffered a little shadow to darken your glorious courage. But again and again you have told me to believe that all will be well. All will be well!" I exclaimed, taking her hand in both mine; "you have too much of the heroine in you to render the issue of this horrible voyage uncertain. Your courage will shine out afresh. A little patience and the gloom will have passed. I need every bit of encouragement you can give me, and shall be the pluckier and the stronger for your own strength and bravery."

She kept her face averted, and a tear fell from her cheek. I believe I never acted more wisely in my life than by leaving her without another word and withdrawing to my cabin, and remaining there until I felt calm enough to be able to talk to her with clear perception of the meaning of my presence on board, and of the object of our journey.

When the dog-watch between six and eight came round, the evening was so gentle and lovely that I cannot remember the like of it. I had charge of the brig, and often stopped in my walk to exchange a few sentences with Miss Grant, who was seated near the skylight. The ugly halfcaste Ladova was at the wheel, a few seamen were sitting on the forecastlehead smoking, but presently I noticed the cook come out of his little caboose with a small kid or tub in his hand, the steam of which seemed grateful to him, for as he walked on to the forecastle he kept his head overhanging it as though inhaling it. He set the kid down very carefully near the scuttle. The loungers in the head gathered round, and seemed to sniff up the incense with great satisfaction, as might be gathered from their several postures and the expressions on their faces, though I was at too great a distance to hear what they said. The cook returned to the ca

boose, and shortly afterwards emerged with an armful of pannikins, which he placed close alongside the steaming kid. I eyed these proceedings uneasily. It was not hard to guess that the steam yonder rose from something stronger than water. One of the fellows put his head into the scuttle and called out, and in a few moments the rest of the crew came on deck. Amongst them was Mole, who sprang through the hatch with a fiddle in his hand. His first act was to step up to the kid, dip a pannikin into it, and take a sip. The brew was evidently to his taste, for he gave the cook a nod, drained the pannikin, and screwing the fiddle to his shoulder, fell to tuning it.

'They mean to be merry," said I to Miss Grant.

"Will there not be enough drink in that wooden tub," she said, "to make them intoxicated?"

"Depends on the strength of the mixture," said I. "Mole gave me his word that there should be no drunkenness aboard us. I fancy the fellows are too distrustful of me to swallow more than will hearten them to a couple of hours of jollity. Strange there should have been a fiddle aboard all this time, and it should never have been played until now. 'Tis to be Jack's requiem over Broadwater. God help us! what a muddle that creature has brought us into."

Just then Mole held up his hand to attract my attention.

"Jest a bit of sailors' pleasuring, Mr. Musgrave," he sang out; "no more'n 'll help us to tune up our pipes, and put a bit of spring into our flat feet."

I responded quickly, with an answering flourish of my hand: "You're quite right, my lads. Never was there a crew more fairly entitled to a spell of merry-making."

"Boys!" shouted Mole, who seemed somewhat excited,

"to the lady, bullies! Dip to her and to his honour atop, my livelies. Time from me, my noble fellows!"

"Hold!" I cried, entering into the spirit of the thing, "let Ladova be of you."

I went to the wheel. "Jump," said I, "and drink our healths!"

He ran forward. Mole then dipped for a second draught, and stood with his pannikin poised, waiting for the others to fill. It was a sea-picture just then to haunt a man to his grave, so charged was the colour, the beauty, the freshness of it, with the horrible significance of the condition of things aboard. The manly, handsome figure of Mole, in white duck trousers, blue shirt leaving his breast bare, round hat perched on the back of his head, arms of a giant naked to above the elbow, holding his pannikin high in marine festive posture-the group behind, with their pannikins upheld in imitation of him, here and there a bright eye gleaming out of a shaggy face past some brawny shoulder, the olive features of the half-blood contrasting with the dingy white of the cook-the crimson background of the west, against whose effulgent reaches, rising from scarlet at the sea-line to a sweep of delicate golden haze over the mastheads, each figure stood out clear cut, the loveliness of the great circle curving from the glory over one cathead into the dark blue of the east, and back again to the effulgent sky and sea over the bow ;-it was indeed a scene not to be lightly forgotten, full as it was with the spirit of the beauty of the evening, and with the memory of murder and of bitter wrong. doing, and with our present fears.

"Time from me, my livelies!" cried Mole, with a look over either shoulder; then holding his pannikin high and gazing aft, "One-Two-Three!" At the last word, and in utter silence, flash went every man's pannikin to his mouth, and in token that our healths had been effectually drunk, every fellow held his pannikin inverted. The thing was done with a military precision that must have won a laugh from me at any other time; but before merriment was practicable, one wanted to know

how much liquor the kid held, and how much spirit had gone to the manufacture of the contents of the little tub.

Miss Grant rose and courtesied towards the forecastle with inimitable grace, whilst I raised my hat to the dumb salute of the inverted pannikins. Then Ladova returned, and I fell to pacing the deck again, saying to Miss Grant, as I lingered abreast of her a moment with a careless glance aloft, that this was a sign of goodwill on the part of the men that ought to help the courage of us both.

Mole seized his fiddle afresh, and vaulting on to the forecastle-capstan, played a brisk polka. Next to jigging, Jack loves polking; the hornpipe heads the list, but the polka stands next. The sailors formed themselves into couples, and in a few moments were twisting and sliding round the musician. There was fun to be got out of even the mere sight of the capers their legs cut, and the enjoyment on their faces grinning over one another's shoulders as they revolved. The cook, wanting a partner, danced alone, a detail of this little passage of jollity that rendered the whole scene inexpressibly childish. I said to Miss Grant, "Is there in all human nature a simplerhearted creature than the sailor? What landsman could find diversion in dancing as those fellows are? In fact," said I, "Jack has all the simplicity of the savage, with a touch of the savage's unpleasant qualities. There is nothing in memory to hinder him.

Observe how heartily Mole saws, as if all had been and still was as well with this ship as at the day she lay in the Pool. Only a few hours ago one, or maybe more, yonder struck Broadwater down and tossed him overboard. Yet the punch is not the less sweet to their palates. They shake as lively a foot as any sinless soul could."

"See the half-blood! He dances all over. Every bit of him to his very eyes is on the move. He hops about with pure Spanish enjoyment. That rude deck there might be a ballroom for him, and the rough company of the

sailors a polished fandango," said Miss Grant.

Ay," said I, "and I dare say he would not quiver about the less briskly for the thought that the shadow of the gallows which awaits him lies dark to the light of the setting sun, somewhere behind the slope of that sea-line."

When the polka came to an end, Mole dismounted and handed the fiddle to the half-blood, who, grinning with an almost negro-like countenance of enjoyment, took the other's place, and struck up the well-known hornpipe air, "Jack Robinson." Mole took the deck alone; the others, every man holding a pannikin newly dipped, drew off hot and merry to look on, some sitting, some lounging. Carefully screwing his hat on his head, Mole took the preliminary walk round, and then broke into the ocean-dance, with the perched figure of the half-blood behind him fiddling most ably. I never in all my life saw the hornpipe better danced. There was so much expertness indeed as almost to make one forget one's dislike of the fellow. The admiration of the spectators sobered their grins, and they gazed with sedate appreciation. Sometimes one or another rapped out "Hurrah, bully! You're the lad for the girls!" "Swing to it, my lively!" Bully for you, Terry, bully for you!" and the like, accompanied by a frequent lifting of the pannikins. With his hat "on nine hairs," as sailors say, his arms sometimes folded upon his breast, sometimes one hand upon his hip, the other lifted, his loose white trousers fluttering against the scarlet background, his rough hair tossing upon his brow, with the spirit of the thing shining in his eyes, Mole slapped the deck with his feet till it rattled like castanets in the hands of a Spanish dancer, jigging it so inimitably well indeed that Miss Grant could not remove her eyes from him, whilst I gazed positively fascinated by the sight. Indeed, it stirred old memories in me as nothing else had done since we first weighed anchor. It took me back to the forecastle of the

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grand old Indiaman when the sultry dog-watch was growing cool to the dewy eastern shadow. I clapped my hands loudly when Mole, half-breathless with exertion and purple with heat, brought his dance to an end with a smart blow of his foot and a bow to us aft, as finely managed as any courtier could have contrived it. Then after an interval he took the fiddle again, and the others fell a-dancing, and when they were tired they sang

songs.

By this time the evening had drawn over us. There were long rusty streaks of expiring scarlet in the west, but the stars were shining brilliantly, and the gloom of the night was already darkening out the forecastle upon the eye into an airy dusk, amid which the shapes of the seamen were scarcely visible. I had already noticed with satisfaction that the tub, which had been tilted that the last drop might be dipped out of it, was left unreplenished. One fellow sang with a fine voicewho it was I knew not; it was a clear rich baritone, and went floating up amongst the sails, whose wan hollows gave the notes back in dim echoes. I leaned with Miss Grant over the rail listening. An occasional delicate sob of water rose from the clear profound, which, mingling with the fellow's voice, gave a quality of softness and even of pathos to it. Nearly all the songs sung were of a sentimental cast, and were accompanied by either Mole or Charles with the fiddle; and though broad daylight would no doubt have found the sounds for the most part commonplace enough, yet the airs, even when delivered by some hoarser pipe than usual, took a note of romance and a quality of unreality from the overshadowing presence of the liquid night, the melancholy spaciousness of the dark sea extending on all sides, the dimness of the extended wings of canvas on high, the stillness upon the deep that was scarce disturbed by the breathing of the warm, dew-laden night-wind into the sails, and the almost oppressive hush

you found when, amid the intervals of the songs, you sent your gaze into the dark blue dome brilliant with stars which jewelled every point of spar, every shadowy end of boom, every phantasmal length of yard of the faint, pale fabric, looming large above the delicate glimmer of the decks.

All was hushed and in darkness forward; one figure alone could be made out crossing the stars in a regular pendulum tread on the forecastle, when Mole came aft to relieve me. The excitement of the drink and the dance had gone out of him. He said: "Ye see the men are well in hand, Mr. Musgrave; there's nothen to be feared from their liquorizing, as I told you."

"I was glad to notice that," I answered; "your jollifications, indeed your doings of any kind, are no concern of mine outside the lady's safety and my own. I heartily wish that you understood navigation, and that you could take charge of the brig, for in that case you would have no objection to putting Miss Grant and me aboard the first craft that would be willing to take us. The deuce of it is, Mr. Mole," continued I-for I hoped he might have come to me with a disposition rendered a trifle generous by the dog-watch festivity, and would be willing therefore to talk a little more freely than at another time-" the lady is bound to Rio under my charge, to be married to a cousin of mine who lives at that place, and the road there by way of Cuba threatens so long a delay, that besides the secret grieving of the lady over her prolonged separation from her sweetheart-and you, Mr. Mole, as an English sailor, will understand her feelings-there is the worry of my cousin to be considered. He will think the ship lost; he may fancy me false to my trust, perhaps."

He waited a little before answering, and then said very civilly: "I can quite onderstand yours and the lady's feelings. We're all sorry for ye both, I assure you; but we don't mean to let Charles swing; we don't intend to put ourselves in the way of the

law, and so, as you've been already given plain to onderstand, Mr. Musgrave, there mustn't be, and there won't be, no speaking of ships. 'Sides," he continued, with a sudden rounding upon me, so to speak, in his manner, "supposing the hands consented to your trans-shipping yourselves, ain't it a million to one that the vessel wouldn't be bound to Rio, or anywhere's near it? In that case," he added with a laugh, which he instantly checked, "you're as well off here; for Cuba's nearer to Rio than the Cape o' Good Hope or the Indies 'ud be, and for all you know, the ship you enter might be bound to them parts, or further off still-to Chiney or New Zealand."

Spite of his civil manner, I judged there was little more to come from a chat with him than ill-temper on his side and increased mortification and anxiety on mine, so telling him that the course to be steered throughout the night was the course we had been heading all day, I went below to join. Miss Grant. I told her what Mole had said, and we sat talking till about nine o'clock; and then observing her to look very weary, for she had slept but little during the previous night, I begged her to withdraw, saying that I myself needed rest, as I should have to turn out again at twelve o'clock. Nevertheless, though professing myself tired, I was in no humour to go to bed.

It was impossible to sit alone in that cabin without thinking of old Broadwater, a fancy that sent the eye instinctively to the smudge that still lurked darkly in the stain of the wood at the foot of the cabin-steps. A stouter heart than mine might have owned to a sense of timidity without a feeling of shame. The voyage indeed had been more like a nightmare than the grim reality it was, with its teeming life of brutality and ugly deeds. It seemed but yesterday that the brig had floated past the bald terrace of the South Foreland, and yet in the brief interval of the few weeks seven men of our slender company had

man to such an accompaniment of tragic and scaring conditions as to cause the memory of his death to lay upon the mind with the significance of yonder stain upon the planks. Then again I was haunted by the recollection of the gaping and supplicating figures which had that morning piteously motioned to us for help, and of the white-bearded old man whose uplifted eyes and trembling, pointing hand had made his curse upon us as articulate as though the ear had received every syllable of the malediction.

But this sitting alone, with nothing to break in upon one's thoughts but the thin, weak groans of the swaying ship, was but melancholy work. I went to my cabin, and was about to undress myself, when it occurred to me that, since the brig was now in possession of the crew, whose condition might not be quite so sober as that of Mole, it would be as well for me to look to my pistols. I charged and primed them both, and then remembering that Miss Grant had talked as though she could handle a fire-arm with thorough knowledge of its use, I resolved to give her one of the brace to lodge under her pillow, or to place ready to hand. I did not doubt that a spirit such as hers would find something tonical and supporting in the mere notion of a loaded weapon lying close to her grasp. In sober truth, I feared more for her than for myself. My life was too serviceable to the men just now to render me uneasy on my own account; but it was otherwise with Miss Grant. Who could tell but that amongst that lawless band there were some-even one -with instincts to be easily rendered devilish with liquor? I see myself now, standing in that little cabin, grasping a pistol in either hand, my imagination forward in the forecastle, picturing the dim light of the slush-lamp there, flinging its faint, wavering illumination over the seamen sitting in their bunks, or with hairy faces overhanging the