r. The
inspection over, he slipped his arm through the Actor's and started him
down the deck toward the Cattle Agent's cabin. When the two emerged the
Texan's face still wore the look which had rested on it since the
time the Captain had called him from the smoking-room. The Actor's
countenance, however, had undergone a change. All his nervous timidity
was gone; his lips were tightly drawn, the line of the jaw more
determined. He looked like a man who had heard some news which had first
steadied and then solidified him. These changes often overtake men of
sensitive, highly strung natures.

On the way back they encountered the Captain accompanied by the Chief
Engineer. The two were heading for the saloon, the bugle having sounded
for luncheon. As they passed by with their easy, swinging gait, the
passengers watched them closely. If there was danger in the air these
two officers, of all men, would know it. The Captain greeted the Texan
with a significant look, waited until the Actor had been presented,
looked the Texan's friend over from head to foot, and then with a nod to
several of the others halted opposite a steamer chair in which sat the
widow and her two children--one a baby and the other a boy of four--a
plump, hugable little fellow, every inch of whose surface invited a
caress.

"Please stay a minute and let me talk to you, Captain," the widow
pleaded. "I've been so worried. None of these stories are true, are
they? There can't be any danger or you would have told me--wouldn't
you?"

The Captain laughed heartily, so heartily that even the Chief Engineer
looked at him in astonishment. "What stories do you hear, my dear lady?"

"That the steamer isn't loaded properly?"

Again the Captain laughed, this time under the curls of the chubby boy
whom he had caught in his arms and was kissing eagerly.

"Not loaded right?" he puffed at last when he got his breath. "Well,
well, what a pity! That yarn, I guess, comes from some of the navigators
in the smoking-room. They generally run the ship. Here, you little
rascal, turn out your toes and dance a jig for me. No--no--not that
way--this way-r-out with them! Here, let me show you. One--two--off
we go. Now the pigeon wing and the double twist and the rat-tat-tat,
rat-tat-tat--that's the way, my lad!"

He had the boy's hands now, the child shouting with laughter, the
overjoyed mother clapping her hands as the big burly Captain with his
face twice as red from the exerci