ls
sufficiently to keep them asleep and give the old tub steerage-way. The
watch were just finishing off the task of washing decks; the men going
over the streaming planks with swabs and squeegees, to remove the
superfluous water, while Purchas, sitting on the stern grating, was
drying his bare feet with a towel preparatory to drawing on his socks
and shoes. Miss Trevor was not visible.

The mate, having bade Leslie good morning, proceeded to inform him that
the breeze, which was breathing out from the eastward, had come up with
the sun, and that he hoped it would freshen as the day grew older;
winding up with an earnest aspiration that it would last long enough to
run them into the "Trades." Then, having donned his foot coverings, he
drew Leslie aside, out of hearing of the helmsman, to impart the
information that, having visited the "old man's" cabin an hour
previously, he had found him no better, and that he was beginning to
feel "downright anxious" about him.

Hearing this, Leslie proposed that they should both go down together, to
investigate Potter's condition; and Purchas eagerly acquiescing, they
presently found themselves once more bending over the sick man.

As the mate had said, there was no perceptible change in the skipper's
appearance, save that, as Leslie thought, his breathing was a trifle
more stertorous. He was lying in precisely the same attitude that he
had assumed when first placed in the bunk; indeed, the two men agreed
that, so far as they could see, he had not moved a limb from that
moment. While they stood there together, discussing the man's
disconcerting condition, faint rustling, as of garments, outside the
cabin door, accompanied by light footsteps upon the companion ladder,
apprised them of the fact that Miss Trevor was moving, and had gone on
deck; whereupon Leslie went out and followed her. He found her standing
just to windward of the companion, gazing with visible delight at the
brilliant and sparkling scene around her. She had evidently rested
well, for she looked as fresh and wholesome as the morning itself; and
although her costume was somewhat shrunken, and showed here and there
patches of whitish discolouration from its long immersion in the sea,
she still presented a picture of grace calculated to charm the most
fastidious eye.

Lifting his cap, Leslie stepped forward and greeted her, bidding her
good morning, and remarking that he hoped she had slept as well as her
ap