iced him, but he saw that the captain was shivering, his hands
picking almost convulsively at the table-cloth.

"Where's Carlsen, curse him!" Rainey heard through his cabin partition.
"Tell him I can't stand this any longer. He's got to help me. Got to.
_Got to._"

As Rainey appeared, walking heavily in his boots, the girl looked up.
Her father was slumped in his chair, his face buried on his folded arms.
The girl glanced at him doubtfully, apparently uncertain whether to go
herself to find Carlsen or stay with her father.

"Anything I can do, Miss Simms? Your father seems quite ill."

The hesitation of the girl even to speak to him was very plain to
Rainey. Suddenly she threw up her chin.

"Kindly find Doctor Carlsen," she ordered, rather than requested. "Ask
him to come as soon as he can. I--" She turned uncertainly to her
father.

"Can I help you to get him into the cabin?" asked Rainey.

She thanked him with lips, not eyes, and he assisted her to shift the
almost helpless man into his room and bunk. He was like a stuffed sack
between them, save that his body twitched. While Rainey took most of the
weight, he marveled at the strength of the slender girl and the way in
which she applied it. Simms seemed to have fainted, to be on the verge
of unconsciousness or even utter collapse. Rainey felt his wrist, and
the pulse was almost imperceptible.

"I'll get the doctor immediately," he said.

She nodded at him, chafing her father's hands, her own face pale, and a
look of anxious fear in her eyes.

"Mighty funny sort of sciatica," Rainey told himself as he hurried
forward. He knew where Carlsen was, in the hunters' cozy quarters,
playing poker. From the chips in front of him he had been winning
heavily.

"The skipper's ill," said Rainey. "No pulse. Almost unconscious."

Carlsen raised his eyebrows.

"Didn't know you were a physician," he said. "Just one of his spells.
I'll finish this hand. Too good to lay down. The skipper can wait for
once."

The hunters grinned as Carlsen took his time to draw his cards, make his
bets and eventually win the pot on three queens.

"I wonder what your real game is?" Rainey asked himself as he affected
to watch the play. According to his own announcement Carlsen was
deliberately neglecting the father of the girl he was to marry and at
the same time slighting the captain to his own men. Carlsen drew in his
chips and leisurely made a note of the amount.

"Quite a while yet