icity that is usually given to the fact when a
ship is about to sail with an unusually large consignment of gold in her
safe. Thus, for a full week before we sailed the Melbourne papers were
daily proclaiming the news that we were to take home five hundred
thousand pounds' worth of gold; and people used to come down and stare
at us by the hour, as though we were a curiosity. I don't like that
sort of thing at all, and I think the papers ought not to make public
such matters; for honest men are not very particularly interested to
know how much gold a ship is going to sail with; but such stories must
be a frightful temptation to rogues, and in these days, when roguery has
become almost a science, there is no knowing what the publication of
such information may lead to.

"Well, it happened that during this particular time there was a cruiser
belonging to a certain Power lying at anchor in the bay--I'm not going
to tell you her name or nationality, because it may be that my
suspicions of her are unjust--but, anyway, she was as like that craft
that you destroyed this morning--by the way, I suppose it _was_ you, and
not an accident aboard, as my chief officer maintains? Yes. I was
certain of it. Well, as I was saying, this craft was lying there pretty
nearly all the time that this talk was going on in the papers about the
enormous consignment of gold that we were taking, and several of her
people kept coming aboard of us at different times, under the pretence
of showing their great friendliness for the British nation, and so on.
Well, of course we were as civil as we could be to them, never
suspecting anything, you know, especially as they scarcely ever referred
to the matter of gold--except once, I remember, one of them asked me if
all these statements in the newspapers were true, and like a fool I
answered that they were.

"Well, this cruiser that I'm talking about sailed two days before
ourselves, the news being that she was bound for the east coast of
Africa; and I thought no more about her until this morning when, upon
turning out, it was reported to me that there was something coming up
astern and overhauling us.

"Now, if I have a weakness, it is in connection with this ship. She is
a good boat, and I am proud of her; proud of her size, proud of her
appearance, proud of her speed--yes, especially proud of her speed; I
don't like to be overhauled and passed by anything. So I sent word to
the chief engineer to