g noted Mildmay's return, and waited until
he was safely in the bathroom, at once proceeded to the pilot-house, and
starting the engines, put the _Flying Fish_ again on her course. Thus,
when at length "the skipper" made his appearance on deck--exhaling a
powerful odour of disinfectants--the ship that he had visited was on the
horizon, and in flames from stem to stern.

"You did your work pretty effectually," said Sir Reginald to him,
nodding towards the blazing ship. "I suppose it was the proper thing to
do, eh?"

"Undoubtedly," answered Mildmay. "We could not salve her, you see; and
to leave her drifting about, derelict, would only be to expose other
ships to a very serious danger--not necessarily the danger of infection,
but the peril of a disastrous collision. There is not the slightest
doubt in my mind that many a good ship has gone to the bottom, taking
her crew with her, as the result of collision with a derelict in the
dark hours of a dirty, windy night; and if a derelict is fallen in with
under circumstances which render the salving of her impossible, she
certainly ought to be destroyed. Yet, in the case of yonder ship--
which, by the way, is the _Linschoten_, of Rotterdam, Dirk Dirkzwager,
master, bound from Batavia to Amsterdam--the necessity was rather a
regrettable one; for she carried a valuable cargo, consisting chiefly of
coffee, indigo, and tobacco. Her logbook shows that she sailed for home
nearly three months ago, and was becalmed on her fourth day out, her
present position seeming to indicate that she has remained becalmed ever
since--at least, her logbook makes it clear that she met with no wind
for seven full weeks after running into the calm. And about that time
it appears that sickness of some virulent and deadly kind broke out
aboard her--the log does not specify what it was, possibly because the
skipper did not know--and within twenty-four hours all hands were down
with it. The entry conveying this information is the last in the book,
and the rest can only be guessed at; but it must have been pretty bad,
for there were nineteen corpses on board her, which is clear enough
evidence that the living were too ill to dispose of the dead. And that,
I think, is all I need tell you. I will not attempt to describe to you
what I saw aboard her; for, in the first place, no language of mine
could do justice to it, and, in the second place, there is no good to be
done by attempting to harrow your