the Honourable John to the bridge.

"Closed, at any rate," said I, "and with very moist curtains, through
which we must push our way unpleasantly enough into the harbour."

We reached the upper deck, which was dotted with bulgy figures in cloaks
and capes, damp, and silent, and melancholy. The bridge formed the
forward part of the upper deck, where it terminated amidships; the
helmsman, with his hands upon the spokes, shifted his eyes alternately
between the binnacle and the bows, and gave the wheel a turn now this
way and now that, while the captain paced cross-wise between the
paddle-boxes, and searched the mirk above and ahead to see whether there
was any likelihood that the weather would clear.

Abaft the funnel the deck was free to those of the passengers who held
saloon tickets, but afore the funnel--that is, on the bridge itself--no
one was allowed without the captain's special permission. This space was
railed off, with a hinged lift in the mahogany on either side, both of
which were now down and barred. We were not quite sure whether the
captain were really the Honourable John's relative, or whether our
comrade's proposal to join the captain was only one of those erratic
notions which visited his aristocratic brain, and were often carried
through with a confidence so complete as to be rarely unsuccessful. He
was unmercifully snubbed sometimes, and he richly deserved it; but the
curious thing about him was that the snubs were wasted. Where others
would have retired crestfallen, the Honourable John held his head high
and heeded not.

We were prepared to find that the forty-second cousinship was a fiction,
and that the captain would quietly ignore him; but we were in the
background, and it mattered very little to us; the deck would be as
welcome as the bridge.

"Well, cousin cap.," said John familiarly, placing his hand upon the wet
mahogany rail, "and how are you?"

"Hallo!" exclaimed the captain, facing round. "Where have you tumbled
from?"

"Hughtown, St. Mary's, was the last bit of mother earth I touched before
I sprang aboard the _Queen of Paddlers_. May we venture within your
private domain?"

"Why, certainly, John," and he lifted the rail and beckoned us forward.

"Two chums of mine," said John, naming us, and then he named the captain
as his respected cousin forty-two times removed. The captain smiled at
him, shook his head, and observed that the relationship was a little
closer than that, but