that half-drowned the lad's voice.

"Miserable weather, Pickle; but never mind. We must settle down to a
good morning's work in the laboratory."

"Oh no, not yet, uncle; we don't seem to have started. It will only be
a makeshift."

"But we might put things a little more straight, boy."

"Oh no, uncle; they are too straight now, and I want to go on deck."

"Bah! It isn't fit. Wait till the weather holds up."

"Oh, I shall dress up accordingly, uncle. But I say, where does all the
rain come from? It must be falling in millions of tons everywhere."

"Ah, you might as well ask me where the wind comes from. Study up some
book on meteorology."

"Oh yes, I will, uncle; but not yet."

"Very well; be off."

Rodd hurried out of the cabin, and five minutes later came back rattling
and crackling, to present himself before his uncle, who thrust up his
spectacles upon his forehead and stared.

"There," cried Rodd; "don't think I shall get wet. I wish I'd had it
the other night. It's splendid, uncle, and so stiff that if I like to
stoop down a little and spread my arms, I can almost rest in it. I say,
don't I look like a dried haddock?"

"Humph! Well, yes, you do look about the same colour," grumbled the
doctor, for the boy was buttoned up in a glistening oilskin coat of a
buff yellow tint; the turned-up collar just revealed the tips of his
ears, and he was crowned by a sou'-wester securely tied beneath his
chin.

"I say, this will do, won't it?"

"Yes, you look a beauty!" grunted the doctor; "but there, be off; I want
to write a letter or two."

Rodd went crackling up the cabin stairs, clump, clump, clump, for he was
wearing a heavy pair of fisherman's boots that had been made waterproof
by many applications of oil--a pair specially prepared for fishing
purposes and future wading amongst the wonders of coral reef and strand.

The deck was almost deserted, the only two personages of the schooner's
crew being the captain and Joe Cross, both costumed so as to match
exactly with the boy, who now joined them, to begin streaming with water
to the same extent as they.

They both looked at him in turn, Cross grinning and just showing a glint
of his white teeth where the collar of his oilskin joined, while his
companion scowled, or seemed to, and emitted a low grumbling sound that
might have meant welcome or the finding of fault, which of the two Rodd
did not grasp, for the skipper turned his back and rolled s