se, danced back and forth across the
deck, the passengers forming a ring about them.

"There!" sputtered the Captain, all out of breath from the exercise, as
he dropped the child back into the widow's arms. "Now all of you come
down to luncheon. The weather is getting better every minute. The glass
is rising and we are going to have a fine night."

Carhart, who had watched the whole performance with an ill-concealed
sneer on his face, muttered to the man next him:

"What did I tell you? He's a pretty kind of a Captain, ain't he? He's
mashed on the widow just as I told you. Smoking-room yarn, is it? I bet
I could pick out half a dozen men right in them chairs who could run
the ship as well as he does. Maybe we'll have to take charge, after
all--don't you think so, Mr. Bonner?"

The Texan smiled grimly: "I'll let you do the picking, Mr. Carhart--"
and with his hand on the Actor's arm, the two went below.

A counter-current now swept through the ship. If anything was really
the matter the Captain would not be dancing jigs, nor would he leave
the bridge for his meals. This, like all other counter-currents--wave or
otherwise--tossed up a bobble of dispute when the two clashed. There
was no doubt about it: Carhart had been "talking through his
hat"--"shooting off his mouth"--the man was "a gas bag," etc., etc. When
appeal for confirmation was made to the Texan and the Actor, who now
seemed inseparable, neither made reply. They evidently did not care to
be mixed up in what Bonner characterized with a grim smile as "more hot
air."

All through the meal the Captain kept up his good-natured mood; chatting
with the widow who sat on his right, the baby in her lap; making a pig
of a lemon and some tooth-picks for the boy, who had crawled up into
his arms; exchanging nods and smiles down the length of the table with
several new arrivals, or congratulating those nearest to him on their
recovery after the storm, ending by carrying both boy and baby to the
upper deck--so that he might "not forget how to handle" his own when he
got back, he laughed in explanation.

III

Luncheon over, the passengers, many of whom had been continuously in
their berths, began to crowd the decks. These soon discovered that the
ship was not on an even keel; a fact confirmed when attention was called
to the slant of the steamer chairs and the roll of an orange toward the
scuppers. Explanation was offered by the Texan, who argued that the
wind