can the young rascal have got to?" exclaimed Rupert,
starting up in dismay. He had been so engrossed in a book all the
morning that he had taken very little notice of what was going on around
him. He had certainly had to intervene once in a spirited encounter
between Don and Billykins, who had taken to what they called wrestling,
but which in reality amounted to a lively round of punching each other
black and blue. Both small boys were considerably upset at being stopped
in this entirely novel diversion, and declared that Rupert was neither
public-spirited nor sporting to put a veto upon it; but he was firm, and
threatened to send one of them to bed if they did not desist, and so
they had been forced to find some other occupation.

But where was Rumple?

Enquiry elicited the alarming fact that he had not been seen at lunch,
and for a healthy boy, especially one with a Plumstead appetite, to be
absent from a meal meant that something must be very wrong indeed.

An active search through the vessel was at once organized; but when,
after half an hour of brisk hunting, no trace of Rumple could be found,
Nealie grew seriously alarmed, a horrible dread coming into her heart
that he had in some way tumbled overboard.

She was running along the lower deck in search of one of the officers,
to whom she might tell her fear, when she almost tumbled into the arms
of the jolly fat purser, who had been so kind to all the children during
the weeks of voyaging.

"Oh, Mr. Bent, we have lost my brother Rumple; he has not been seen
since breakfast, and I am most dreadfully afraid that he must have
fallen overboard!" she cried, the sharp distress in her tone showing how
keen was her anxiety.

"Tut, tut, Missy, he could not have done that in broad daylight without
someone seeing him," replied the purser, who always treated Nealie as if
she were no older than Rumple or Sylvia.

"Are you quite sure?" she asked anxiously.

"Quite! A big ship like this is all eyes in the daytime, you know, and
to-day there have been men at work on the railings ever since breakfast,
so there is no danger at all that anything of that sort can have
happened. But I wonder where the young rascal can be? I seem to remember
having seen him nipping round somewhere this morning. Let me see; what
could I have been doing?" and the purser screwed up his face until there
was nothing of his eyes visible.

"Oh, please try to think where it was that you saw him, and t