as he walked. To my astonishment it proved to be the
captain, and it was plain that something serious was the matter with
him. When he came closer I found that he was talking to himself.

"What is the matter, captain?" I inquired, with a foreboding in my
heart. "Are you not feeling well?"

He shook off the hand I had placed upon his arm.

"It is no good, I will not do it!" he cried fiercely. "I have done
enough for you already, and you won't get me to do any more."

"Come, come," I said, "you mustn't be wandering about the deck like
this! Let me help you to your cabin." So saying, I took him by the arm
and was about to lead him along the deck in the direction of his own
quarters, when, with a shout of rage, he turned and threw himself upon
me. Then began a struggle such as I had never known in my life before.
The man was undoubtedly mad, and I soon found that I had to put out all
my strength to hold my own against him.

While we were still wrestling, Pharos made his appearance from below. He
took in the situation at a glance, and as we swayed towards him threw
himself upon the captain, twining his long, thin fingers about the
other's throat and clinging to him with the tenacity of a bulldog. The
result may be easily foreseen. Overmatched as he was, the wretched man
fell like a log upon the deck, and I with him. The force with which his
head struck the planks must have stunned him, for he lay, without
moving, just where he had fallen. The light of the lamp in the companion
fell full upon his face and enabled me to see a large swelling on the
right side of the throat, a little below the ear.

"Another victim," said Pharos, and I could have sworn a chuckle escaped
him. "You had better leave him to me. There is no hope for him. That
swelling is an infallible sign. He is unconscious now; in half an hour
he will be dead."

Unhappily his prophecy proved to be correct, for though we bore him to
his cabin and did all that was possible, in something under the time
Pharos had mentioned death had overtaken him.

Our position was even less pleasant now than before. We had only the
second mate to fall back upon, and if anything happened to him I did not
see how it would be possible for us to reach our destination. As it
turned out, however, I need not have worried myself, for we were closer
to the English coast than I imagined.

Owing to the stringency of the quarantine laws, and to the fact that the
coastguards all round