ere goes Mildmay down through the ship's skylight. He is doubtless
going to search the cabins for anything he can find that will help to
establish her identity. We shall see no more of him for the next
half-hour or so, I suspect."

They saw Sir Reginald lean over the edge of the skylight for a moment,
and look down into the ship's interior; and then, as they watched, he
seated himself composedly upon the fore end of the skylight, upon which
he had been standing, and, with folded arms, leaned back against the
almost vertical deck, with the stump of the mizzenmast and a quantity of
wreckage that rested upon it, just above his head, overarching him in a
sort of canopy. Then they saw the professor and his friend walking
quietly about the wreck, examining it, and pointing out to each other
such peculiarities as attracted their attention. And when the two men
had exhausted the interest that attached to the wreck, the watchers saw
them climb somewhat awkwardly up it and seat themselves beside Sir
Reginald, who had two or three times peered down into the interior of
the skylight, and now seemed to be exhibiting some signs of uneasiness.

"Sir Reginald is beginning to grow fidgety at Mildmay's long stay below,
I fancy," remarked Lethbridge. "But he need not; Mildmay is a sailor,
and a navy man at that; and he may be trusted to take care of himself.
He is very thorough in his methods, and you may depend that--Hillo!
What the--phew! it is an octopus, and I'll be shot if he hasn't--"

The ex-colonel pulled himself up short, and glanced anxiously at the
faces of his companions. Had either of them seen? He noticed a look of
horror and strong repugnance upon the faces of all three; but the horror
was the kind that raises from the sight of some dreadful object, not the
kind that is aroused upon witnessing some especially dreadful
occurrence. He waited a moment to give one or another of them an
opportunity to speak. He hoped they had _not_ seen. He himself had
only caught the barest momentary glimpse, as the creature shot suddenly
up out of the body of the wreck, before it turned; but that glimpse was
enough: _he had seen_!

"Oh, what a dreadful creature!" exclaimed Lady Olivia, turning a pale
face to Lethbridge. "What is it, Colonel, and where did it come from?"

Evidently _she_ had not seen!

"It is an octopus, or giant squid, as some people call it. It is very
similar to the ordinary cuttlefish, only, of course very