o'clock when he came on deck he was made aware
of what had taken place during his watch below, whereupon he lapsed
into a kind of inarticulate stupor, and could not speak the
unutterable. He placed his right hand on his brow, and then on his
left breast, and stood gazing at the long Atlantic rollers, which had
the appearance of an uneven reef of rocks. The stage of stupor and
grief was superseded by that of resigned indignation. He plaintively
called out--

"Well, I'll--be--teetotally--d----d! Miles of sea to be paved with
that beautiful tobacco! Retribution will come to somebody; and, by
thunder! it should come with a clattering vengeance. I will never
forget the sight as long as I have breath."

The captain came up to him, and seeing that his mind was centred on
what he regarded as not only a calamity but a crime, he was so much
amused at his ludicrously pathetic appearance that he laughingly
repeated--

"Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand, and the sound of a voice that
is still."

The inappropriate words were merely used as a piece of chaff, but Mr.
S---- was not in a chaffing mood, so he retorted that he did not see
where the humour came in, and there was nothing to laugh at, and so
on. He then walked on to the bridge, and he and the captain were not
on friendly speaking terms any more during the voyage.

At midnight on the sixth day after parting company from the Spaniards,
the vessel was hove to to take a pilot aboard. Captain S---- took him
aside as soon as he boarded, and asked him in an undertone if he ever
did anything in the contraband line. He held up his hands as though he
were horrified at the suggestion, and exclaimed--

"Not for the world, captain!"

"Very well," replied the captain; "you go below, and I will join you
in a minute or two, after giving orders to the steward to make tea for
us."

As a matter of fact, he remained behind to give orders to the mate to
throw overboard the remaining six bales, which was a further trial to
the grief-stricken officer; and having done this the captain joined
the pilot, and entered into conversation with him. The two men were
not long in discovering that they each belonged to the brotherhood of
Freemasons. This put them on easy terms at once, and encouraged the
pilot to inquire into the meaning of the words spoken to him on
boarding.

"I do not quite know how I stand in relation to that," said the
captain. "Indeed, I am perplexed as to the plan I oug