e spare staterooms therein, and permitting her
to take her meals at the cabin table. Whereby I greatly strengthened
Wilde's enmity toward me, but at the same time secured two devoted
adherents, namely, the girl and Gurney; and a time came--as I sometimes
suspected it would--when I was more than glad to have them on my side,
instead of against me.

CHAPTER SIX.

THE DERELICT DUTCH BARQUE.

Nothing further of any importance occurred until, having worked our way
slowly up past the west and north-west coast of Australia, we found
ourselves to the northward of the Ombay Passage, the entrance of which--
or, rather, Savou Island, which may be said to lie in the fairway of the
southern entrance--I hit off to a hair, much to my own secret
gratification and the admiration of the boatswain and carpenter. Then
one night, toward the end of the middle watch, the wind having fallen
very light, the carpenter, whose watch it happened to be, came down
below in a great state of perturbation to inform me that, although
nothing could be seen, all hands had been terribly alarmed by the sound
of a bell tolling at no great distance.

My first thought upon hearing this news was of a bell buoy marking the
position of some dangerous rock or shoal toward which we might be
drifting; but I quickly dismissed that idea, for bell buoys were much
less numerous in those days than they are now. Moreover there was no
mention of any such thing on the chart or in the directory. I therefore
came to the conclusion that there must be some other cause for the
sounds, and, without waiting to don any of my day clothing, went on deck
to investigate.

Upon stepping out on deck the reason why nothing could be seen at once
became apparent, for the night was as dark as a wolf's mouth--so dark
indeed, that, even after I had been up on the poop long enough for my
eyes to become accustomed to the darkness, nothing was visible save the
feeble light of the low-turned cabin lamps shining through the skylight,
the faint glow of the binnacle lamps upon the helmsman's face and hands
and the upper part of the wheel, and the ghostly image of some twelve
feet of the mainmast, part of the fife rail round it, and such portions
of the running gear as were belayed to the pins therein, all glimmering
uncertainly in as much of the cabin light as made its way out on deck,
through the door by which I had emerged. Beyond these patches of dim
illumination, and the coming and