lvers beside him,
and was soon asleep.

He did not know how long he had been sleeping when he suddenly awoke,
with a sense of danger and oppression strong upon him. Like most men
who pass their lives at sea, or in uncivilised parts of the world, he
seemed to be possessed of a sixth sense which always gave him warning
when there was peril at hand; and it was this sense which now brought
him broad awake in an instant, with his ears straining to catch the
least sound, and his eyes peering through the darkness to catch the
first glimpse of an intruder.

Like a wise man, he refrained from making the slightest sound that might
betray his whereabouts to a prowling assassin; but, slowly and very
carefully, he disengaged his arms from the blankets and reached out for
one of his revolvers. With this in his hand he felt much more
comfortable, and fully prepared for eventualities.

Then, sitting up carefully, Frobisher again listened intently for some
sound which might tell him the position of the danger, if any; but,
strain his ears as he might, he could catch not the slightest suggestion
of a warning. There was, however, a certain faint, peculiar odour in
the tent, which he felt sure proceeded neither from the canvas nor from
the blankets. Very faint indeed it was, and it would perhaps have been
quite imperceptible to anybody with a less keen olfactory sense than
Frobisher possessed; but it was there, all the same, and he felt that he
would very much like to identify it and determine its origin. It was
not unpleasant--indeed the suggestion was of a pleasant perfume, a
perfume which he had often smelt before; but what that perfume was he
could not for the life of him recall just at the moment.

One thing was certain, however, and that was that there had been no such
odour in the tent when he went to sleep; and it must therefore have been
brought in by somebody since then. Now, nobody but himself had any
business there, unless it were Ling come to wake him. But Ling would,
or should, have stood at the entrance and called him; or at the most, if
calling had not aroused him, have come boldly in and shaken him.

There was no sound, however, in the tent, and therefore the intruder, if
there were one, had no legitimate business there; and the more Frobisher
thought about the matter, the more certain he became that all was not as
it should be.

He therefore very slowly and very silently divested himself of his
blankets, lea