; but gradually, very
gradually, Violet Dudley had manifested a partiality for the quiet
unobtrusive courtesies and attentions of Rex Fortescue, which partiality
at length became so clearly marked that, one after the other, the rest
of her admirers retired discomfited, and sought solace for their
disappointment in the exciting sport of rifle shooting at empty bottles
dropped overboard and allowed to drift astern, or in such other
amusements as their tastes led them to favour. Blanche, however, still
kept her division of admirers in a state of feverish suspense,
manifesting no partiality whatever for any one of them above another.
Indeed she seemed to take greater pleasure in questioning Bob about his
former career, and in listening to his quaint but graphic descriptions
of the curious incidents of fisher-life, than she did in the compliments
or conversation of any of her admirers, a circumstance which caused Bob
to be greatly envied.

Whilst this was the state of things aft, matters were not all that they
should be in the forecastle. The crew were a good enough set of men,
and doubtless would have been all right under proper management, but,
thanks to the surly and aggravating behaviour of Mr Carter, the
starboard watch, over which he ruled, was in a state of almost open
mutiny. And yet so acute was the aggressor that for a long time he gave
the men no excuse for legitimate complaint; the utmost that could be
said against him being that he was, in the opinion of the men, unduly
particular as to the set and trim of the sails, and the superlative
cleanliness of everything about the decks. This was all very well
during the daytime, but when in the night-watches the men were hustled
incessantly about the decks, taking a pull here, there, and everywhere
at the halliards, sheets, and braces of the already fully distended and
accurately trimmed sails, only to be ordered a few minutes later to ease
up the lee braces half an inch and take a pull upon the weather ones; or
alternately stowing and setting the "flying kites" or light upper
canvas, they could not help seeing that these things were done less from
zeal and anxiety to make a quick passage than for the purpose of
indulging a spiteful and malicious temper.

At length a crisis arrived. The ship was at the time somewhere about
the latitude of the Cape; stretching to the southward and eastward
close-hauled, with a fine steady breeze from east-north-east. It was
the s