"What is your notion of the matter?" I asked.

Three of them answered together, "He's overboard." Mole added, "Ne'er a doubt of it. It's all hands' opinion. He wasn't a man to hide himself; why should he?" The half-caste Ladova laughed in his throat. "If he's aboard," continued Mole, we should have found him. We've so overhauled the old hooker that had he been a rat we must have come across him. Ain't that right, lads?"

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"Ay, ay," came the reply in a short growl from them all, and the cook in his wheezy voice added, "If he ben't gone to keep poor Billy company my eyes ain't mates."

The suspicion of the insincerity of all this had now grown into a strong conviction that some black deed had been done since I took my last view of Broadwater as he clambered up the companion-steps. But along with this conviction there came also clear perception that I must not by word or look betray the merest phantom of my thoughts, otherwise I should be held as an incriminating witness, and dealt with as one, I had no doubt. My secret agitation was already sufficiently great to render the assumption of an air of consternation easy. I looked from one to another and cried: "Though I never liked the captain, men; though I don't mind saying now that he was one of the most tyrannical and ill-mannered shipmasters I ever met or heard of in my life, yet his disappearance is a blow to the lady and myself. The brig is now without a commander, without a mate, without even a bo'sun. How, think you, did Captain Broadwater meet his end? Was it an accident, do you suppose? He could not have walked overboard." I shook my head. "My lads," I said solemnly, "I don't doubt but that he committed suicide. was as a madman all day yesterday— charged me, men, me," I cried, striking my breast with a passionate gesture, "with a desire to work up a mutiny aboard! A madman, my lads! a

He

drunken lunatic! Not a shadow of doubt but he destroyed himself in his watch on deck, urged overboard, maybe, by the recollection of Gordon and the poor lad and your two shipmates -of all four of whom he has gone before his God as surely the murderer as if he had slit the throat of every man of them with his own hand."

"Mates," cried Mole, tossing his head to clear the hair out of his eyes, and sending a fiery glance from one to another of the seamen, "Mr. Musgrave's put it as there's ne'er a man of us could have said it. I've been a seafaring man eighteen year, man and boy, in all sorts of craft, from the likes of this snorter "-he spat upon the deck-"away up to the Atlantic clippers; but of all capt'ns-" he raised his arm, with a face that darkened to the sudden fierce restraint he put upon himself; "but he's gone,"

he added, letting his hand fall; "committed suicide, as you say, sir; a thing most sartin-past all doubting, in fact; and here we are, Mr. Musgrave, to find out what's to do."

I could see with half an eye that the impression I had sought to produce was made. I thrust my hands in a careless sort of way into my breechespockets, and fell to pacing the deck. "One thing," I exclaimed, "has followed so fast on top of another, that though there ought to be something staggering in Captain Broadwater's suicide, I find," I said, with a halflaugh, and a shrug of the shoulders, "that it scarcely so much as surprises me. But," I continued, addressing Mole, "you ask what's to be done? Have you and your mates a scheme?"

"Well," he answered, speaking with return to his first awkward, defiant manner, when these men and me, after giving the brig a thorough overhaul, was agreed that the skipper was gone, we tarned to and asked one another what was to be done. It didn't need much debating. It's been onderstood all along forrards that you were a sailor yourself equal to navigating a ship, and so of course we at

once settled upon asking you to take charge."

I nodded, taking care to preserve a careless manner to guard against exposure of the worry in me that grew more and more consuming as I listened. "You will take charge, sir?" said Mole interrogatively.

"Certainly, if you wish it," said I. He looked round at the others with a faint inclination of his head, and continued, revolving his cap in his hand with his eyes upon it, "Next consideration was, where to go." He looked up at me without seeming to lift his eyelids

"Where to go!" I cried, startled out of my feigned posture of indifference by the fellow's words. "We're bound to Rio. Shall we not proceed there?"

Every man of them wagged his head with a sort of groaning "No! no! no!" full of an unmistakable note of emphasis.

"We're all resolved not to sail the brig to Rio," said Mole, in an aggressive way that was like a surly hint to me not to argue the point; "we've been turning the matter over, and as we larnt from Mr. Gordon yesterday that our latitude was a few degrees to the norrards of twenty, we've settled to ask you to navigate the Iron Crown to the West Indies."

"The West Indies! You are naming a number of islands which cover a wide area of ocean," I answered coldly; for it had come to me like an inspiration that, if I valued my own and Miss Grant's safety, I must consent to do these men's bidding without so much as even a falter in the speech in which I assented; that practically the brig was theirs, and I and my companion absolutely in their power; and that my sole policy was to appear as though I was willing to be of them, though my approach must exhibit a little natural hesitation. "What part of— what island in the West Indies have you in your mind?”

"Neighbourhood of Cuba," answered one of the men.

"Bill, leave it to me if you please," exclaimed Mole, turning upon the speaker with a frown. "Our notion is, sir," he continued, addressing me with a touch of respect in his manner that was not a little welcome, "that you should navigate the brig towards the island of Cuba, and give us notice when we're within a day's sail of it. Mr. Musgrave," he continued, flinging down his cap, extending his left hand and resting the fist of the right one in it, "you've been a sailor yourselfyou've seen what we've suffered-you onderstand the situation we're in-let it, sir, as between seafaring men, be all plain sailing between you and us. There's been murder done aboard this here craft as you know, sir; and," he proceeded deliberately, almost grinding out the words as he delivered them,

66

Iwe don't intend the man as made away with Mr. Bothwell shall be took. We don't want no interference. We don't intend that the Iron Crown shall be boarded. We don't mean to be laid hold of, and charged with mutineering, and punished for it. D'ye see that, Mr. Musgrave? We've got no idea of coming to any sort of harm that we can provide against. What's done's done! Nothen's happened but what's been desarved, sir-by God, desarved, mates!" he almost roared out, striking his fist violently into the palm of his hand; then suddenly folding his arms upon his breast, he added, in a changed voice charged with menace, "That's the situation, sir, and we want to know if you'll help us."

"On certain conditions," said I. "What'll they be?" he exclaimed, quickly and suspiciously.

I surveyed him a moment whilst I thought, then held up one finger and said: "The lady must have the same privileges of privacy which she has enjoyed down to the present moment." He took a view of the others, and bringing his eyes slowly to mine said: "The lady'll have no call to be afraid of us, sir. She'll find us sailors and men." A grunt of assent from the others followed this.

"Thank you for saying so," said I; "if ever a woman deserved the kindness of a crew she does. Her heart has been with you from the beginning in your troubles."

"Yes, by the Virgin, that's true!" cried the half-caste Ladova, fetching the table a blow with his fist.

"As consarns the lady, sir," said Mole, "set your mind at ease. What's your other conditions?"

sight of his charts and the log-book there, that I may shape a course to Cuba. That's it, I think?"

"Right, sir," exclaimed Mole. Then looking at the others he said: "Lads, there's nothing I've forgot to say, is there?"

There was some scratching of heads and shuffling of feet, and then one said, "No, everything's been said, Terry, I think;" and another, "Mr.

One of them cried, "You're welcome enough to it. The fok'sle's good enough for poor sailor men."

"It's as Thomas there says," exclaimed Mole; "the fok'sle's good enough for us. We don't want no cabin. What's your other conditions?"

"I have named them all," I answered. "You'll provide, I suppose, for our comfort here-tell some one of you off to bring our meals along?"

"You'll see to that, cook," said Mole, turning upon him.

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Ay," exclaimed the other, "that'll be all right, sir. The food'll be cooked as afore, and sarved as afore, if it comes to my having to wait on ye myself."

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Men," said I, "I can expect no more, and I am satisfied. You have met me fairly and spoken to me honestly; and whilst you continue faithful to the understanding that now exists between us, you'll find me as staunch as if I had been one of you from the beginning, and the most illused of you, too. There are two men on deck-you answer for it that they will be satisfied with our arrangement?"

"Yes," answered Mole, "specially may Charles be answered for. A man whose soul has turned black inside him, as his has, by the shadder o' the gallows, ain't going to be very exacting in his arrangements to get rid of the cuss. Charles will agree, sir; so will t'other."

"Be it so," said I; "and now I'll step into the captain's cabin for a

and steer the vessel for Cuba, giving us a day's notice of its heaving into view, and I don't know that there's anything more that we wanted to see him about; but a third cried, "Ay, but Mr. Musgrave 'll want some one to stand watch and watch with him. Who's to do it?"

"You're capt'n now, sir," said Mole, rounding upon me, but speaking very civilly; "it's for you to choose one of us to act as your mate. The crew'll be satisfied with your choice, no matter who you fix upon."

"Then," said I," Mr. Mole, I choose you."

The calling him "mister" set the whole of the fellows on the broad grin.

"Very well, sir," said Mole. "Lads, ye can get forrards now. I'll keep 'a look-out, capt'n, ontil ye come up." Secretly confounded and dismayed as I was by all this business, yet his calling me "captain" made me smile spite of myself, as the others had on my terming him "mister." A general laugh followed, but nothing more was said as the whole body of them went quietly up the ladder and disappeared through the companion-hatch.

I stood a moment or two grasping a stancheon, with a hand to my forehead, oppressed by such a sense of bewilderment that was as sickening in its way as a bad fit of giddiness. But I rallied swiftly, and observing Miss Grant's door to remain closed, stepped at once to the cabin that had been occupied by Broadwater. I entered it with no small feeling of awe. That he had been foully made away with I

did not for an instant doubt, and the shadow of the crime seemed to lie like a material gloom upon the atmosphere of the plain interior.

I was in the mood, indeed, just then to be shocked and startled by little things; and I am not ashamed to own that I recoiled as though the ghost of the skipper stood before me to the sight that first met my eye on opening the door, of a pea-jacket and a sou'wester on the top of it hanging together by the same hook, and under the jacket a pair of breeches arched, empty as they were, to the exact posture Broadwater's shanks exhibited in life. I protest, the suit of clothes, with the thatch of the sou'wester coming down abaft the coat, looked so astonishingly like the old skipper, that for the instant I thought that he had hanged himself with his face to the bulkhead. There was a bunk in the corner with the bed-clothes tumbled; over it a short hanging shelf holding a few nautical books; in a corner another table on which were a quadrant-case, a chronometer, a few mathematical instruments, and, very conspicuous, Broadwater's huge silver turnip watch. The soles of a pair of sea-boots, one foot lying upon another, glimmered out from the gloom under the bunk, as though the captain lay drunk and silent in the darkness there. I took notice, though now I wonder that I should have had eyes for such trifling details, of a likeness of Broadwater, and, as I supposed, of his wife facing each other; two heads cut out in black paper, with streaks of bronze to define the lineaments, mounted on a white ground. There was a canvas bag of charts leaning dropsically against the head of the bunk, and in a roll alongside it was a chart of the North Atlantic, which on opening I found pricked down to noon on the preceding day. The mate's log-book was upon the table. The writing in it was Bothwell's down to the time of his murder; a very neat, clean, almost ladylike hand, that threw into grotesque contrast old Broadwater's sprawl

ing, absurdly ill-spelt entries. Gordon, I suppose, poor fellow, had been without literature enough to qualify him to keep the book. Having made the necessary calculations to enable me to shape the course the men desired, I quitted the berth, grateful to escape an atmosphere in which I breathed with difficulty, and was passing through my cabin on my way to the deck, when I caught sight of Miss Grant looking out through her door. I immediately went to her. There was a resolved, quiet expression in her face, and her voice was without tremor as she said, "I overheard all that passed in the cabin. You do not doubt that the captain has been murdered?"

"I do not," I replied; "but the men must not imagine that we suspect them."

"How will they treat us?"

"Oh, they are well disposed, respectful in their manner to me, and they consented at once to my request that the after part of the vessel should be used only by us. This was more than I had dared hope. You will have

heard their demand that I navigate the vessel to Cuba?"

should

"Yes," she exclaimed, catching her breath quickly; "it will be a roundabout way to Rio, if ever we get there." She smiled faintly and sighed.

"Never fear, we shall get there," said I, cheerfully. "Broadwater has to be thanked for this abominable muddle. J foresaw it all. I was certain that the men would never suffer this vessel to proceed to her destination, call it Rio or any other place, under a captain whose evidence would hang the man who had freed them from the mate's tyranny. But let us most anxiously bear in mind, Miss Grant, that our policy is not to know that Broadwater has been made away with."

“Oh, I see that clearly," she

answered.

"He has committed suicide. Dwell upon this view, and the thought of it will become a habit, and we shall be

was

I raised her hand to my lips and went on deck. The morning was as brilliant as any that had ever shone over us. There was a light wind from the north-east, which I might have accepted as the first breathings of the regular trades, but for the absence of the familiar clouds which float like signals set in the blue heavens to mark the confines of these gracious and serviceable gales. The whole of the eastern sea stretched in a rippling dazzle as of wrinkled quicksilver, of so fiery an effulgence that the weeping eye went instantly from it to the west for the relief it got from the dark blue water there, and the soothing azure of the sky that sloped down to the soft liquid boundary. I ran a swift glance around the horizon, but there nothing to be seen. The brig was under the shortened canvas of the preceding night; and Mole was pacing the deck with the conscious looks of a person in authority. Though it was yet early the cook had lighted the fire and most of the men were gathered about the little caboose, holding pots of hot coffee, some munching at biscuits, others smoking. There was a suggestion of orderliness amongst them that satisfied my eye. It was natural perhaps that, recollecting the ugly stain on the cabin-floor, I should. have thrown a hurried glance over the quarter-deck planking for a like hint that this time should concern Broadwater; but all glistened sand-white to the sun, with no further dyes than the violet pendulous shadows of spar, sail, and rigging. I stepped aft to the binnacle, where Mole at once joined

me.

"The course to Cuba," said I, "running a line to the midship bearings of the island, is west by south. Better get your yards braced in and make sail upon the vessel."

He instantly sung out, "Hands to the braces! Square the yards for Cuba, bullies!"

The men drained their pots and sprang to the ropes. Never from the hour of getting the anchor off Deal had they exhibited such hearty nimbleness. Their songs had the true ring, and their notes swept aloft to the hollows of the canvas, and away into the airy blue over the side with the joyous echo of a homeward-bound chorus. I motioned the man at the helm to put the wheel over, and the brig slowly floated round with her stern to the sun, and the wide, soft heave of the sea coming along under the light wind to the blue shadow of her starboard quarter on the water. Steady!" said I; "now hold her at that, my man."

"Cuba 'll be under the bow then at this?" said he, with such a puckering of his face to the grin which overspread it, that it made one think of an old walnut-shell.

"Yes," said I, "in heading as you go we'll be running the island down in good time."

He leaned from the wheel to discharge a quantity of tobacco-juice over the stern. "Well," said he, "better a light pocket than a heavy heart. There'll be no paying off this woyage, I suppose. But, thank the Lard, there's been plenty o' paying out." He muttered Broadwater's name, calling curses upon it in accents by no means whispered, and out of the fulness of his soul fell a-talking to the brig with his eyes on the compass-card that swung sluggishly to the lubber's point.

I stood alone watching the men making sail upon the brig. Mole worked with the others, pulling hard, raising encouraging shouts, and springing here and there with the zeal of a man who considers it his duty to set