, "but I must
ask you to keep your boat waiting for half an hour more. You will be all
the longer with your wife, you know. I thought of that, Crayford."

"I am much obliged to you, Captain Helding. I suppose there is some
other reason for inverting the customary order of things, and keeping
the lieutenant on shore after the captain is on board?"

"Quite true! there _is_ another reason. I want you to wait for a
volunteer who has just joined us."

"A volunteer!"

"Yes. He has his outfit to get in a hurry, and he may be half an hour
late."

"It's rather a sudden appointment, isn't it?"

"No doubt. Very sudden."

"And--pardon me--it's rather a long time (as we are situated) to keep
the ships waiting for one man?"

"Quite true, again. But a man who is worth having is worth waiting for.
This man is worth having; this man is worth his weight in gold to such
an expedition as ours. Seasoned to all climates and all fatigues--a
strong fellow, a brave fellow, a clever fellow--in short, an excellent
officer. I know him well, or I should never have taken him. The country
gets plenty of work out of my new volunteer, Crayford. He only returned
yesterday from foreign service."

"He only returned yesterday from foreign service! And he volunteers this
morning to join the Arctic expedition? You astonish me."

"I dare say I do! You can't be more astonished than I was, when he
presented himself at my hotel and told me what he wanted. 'Why, my good
fellow, you have just got home,' I said. 'Are you weary of your freedom,
after only a few hours' experience of it?' His answer rather startled
me. He said, 'I am weary of my life, sir. I have come home and found
a trouble to welcome me, which goes near to break my heart. If I don't
take refuge in absence and hard work, I am a lost man. Will you give me
a refuge?' That's what he said, Crayford, word for word."

"Did you ask him to explain himself further?"

"Not I! I knew his value, and I took the poor devil on the spot, without
pestering him with any more questions. No need to ask him to explain
himself. The facts speak for themselves in these cases. The old story,
my good friend! There's a woman at the bottom of it, of course."

Mrs. Crayford, waiting for the return of her husband as patiently as she
could, was startled by feeling a hand suddenly laid on her shoulder.
She looked round, and confronted Clara. Her first feeling of surprise
changed instantly to alarm. Clara was trem