from the other end of
the saloon.

Franklin, at once, looked for the girl. She wasn't to be seen. The
captain came up quickly. `Oh! you are here, Mr Franklin.' And the
mate said, `I was giving a little air to the place, sir.' Then the
captain, his hat pulled down over his eyes, laid his stick on the table
and asked in his kind way: `How did you find your mother,
Franklin?'--`The old lady's first-rate, sir, thank you.' And then they
had nothing to say to each other. It was a strange and disturbing
feeling for Franklin. He, just back from leave, the ship just come to
her loading berth, the captain just come on board, and apparently
nothing to say! The several questions he had been anxious to ask as to
various things which had to be done had slipped out of his mind. He,
too, felt as though he had nothing to say.

The captain, picking up his stick off the table, marched into his
state-room and shut the door after him. Franklin remained still for a
moment and then started slowly to go on deck. But before he had time to
reach the other end of the saloon he heard himself called by name. He
turned round. The captain was staring from the doorway of his
state-room. Franklin said, "Yes, sir." But the captain, silent, leaned
a little forward grasping the door handle. So he, Franklin, walked aft
keeping his eyes on him. When he had come up quite close he said again,
"Yes, sir?" interrogatively. Still silence. The mate didn't like to be
stared at in that manner, a manner quite new in his captain, with a
defiant and self-conscious stare, like a man who feels ill and dares you
to notice it. Franklin gazed at his captain, felt that there was
something wrong, and in his simplicity voiced his feelings by asking
point-blank:

"What's wrong, sir?"

The captain gave a slight start, and the character of his stare changed
to a sort of sinister surprise. Franklin grew very uncomfortable, but
the captain asked negligently:

"What makes you think that there's something wrong?"

"I can't say exactly. You don't look quite yourself, sir," Franklin
owned up.

"You seem to have a confoundedly piercing eye," said the captain in such
an aggressive tone that Franklin was moved to defend himself.

"We have been together now over six years, sir, so I suppose I know you
a bit by this time. I could see there was something wrong directly you
came on board."

"Mr Franklin," said the captain, "we have been more than six years