a passenger's luggage
staggering, so that he caught the corner of a trunk sharply against an
officer's shoulder, with anything but a pleasant result for the burdened
man, who recovered himself, and hurried to the cabin stairs, while,
after apologising to the officer, I followed the man, meaning to go up
on the poop deck.

But the staircase was full of people, and I dived under to go below and
find my cabin, which I now resentfully remembered was not mine.

"Never mind, I'll go and sit down till dinnertime," I thought. "I
suppose there will be some dinner some time."

I went along by the row of cabin doors, and found that I was on the port
instead of the starboard side; and, crossing over, I found the right
cabin at last, seized the handle sharply, for a man was coming along
with more luggage, and, turning the fastening, I was about to dive in,
but the door was fast, and a quick, authoritative voice cried from
within--

"Well, what is it?"

"Open this door," I said as sharply, for I felt irritated at being shut
out of my place of refuge from the noise and misery of the deck.

There was the sound of a bolt shooting back, the door was thrown open,
and I was face to face in the dim light with a tall, dark, youngish man,
whose expression was stern and severe in the extreme.

"Well, sir," he said shortly, "what is it?"

"What is it?" I cried angrily, with a sharp look at my luggage. "What
are you doing here? Why is this door fastened?"

He looked at me quite fiercely for a few moments, and then his face
softened a little, and he smiled, but it was a cold, wintry sort of
facial sunshine.

"Ah, I see," he said, "you are Mr Vincent, I suppose?"

"Yes, I am, sir, and that is my luggage. What then?"

"Only that my name is Brace, and I suppose we are to be
fellow-passengers."

"I--I--beg your pardon," I stammered, with my face turning scarlet.

"There is no need," he said coldly. "Perhaps it was my fault for
fastening the door."

He turned away, stooped down to a trunk in which glistened a bunch of
keys, turned the lock, and then altered his mind and unlocked the trunk,
and took out his keys.

"No," he said rising, "there will be no need for that."

He turned coldly, and went out of the cabin, leaving me with the
sensation that I had behaved rudely and insolently to an officer who was
my superior, and under whose orders I supposed I was to be.

"Nice beginning," I said to myself, and I sat down on one o