party without him," said Jill, blushing a
little.

"You were telling us about the letter written at sea," said the vicar.
"Of course, you heard nothing of the ship in London?"

"Yes, I did," said Roger. "After no end of disappointment, Armstrong
suggested telegraphing to the post-master at Havana, off which the
letter was written, you know, and we heard that there had been a ship
called the `Cyclops' ten years ago trading between the West Indies and
Ceylon, but that nothing was known of any one of the name of Ingleton."

Rosalind looked up suddenly.

"Ceylon and the West Indies?" exclaimed she. "Roger, did Mr Armstrong
never tell you a story he once told me of a shark adventure which
happened to him when he was a sailor on a ship trading between Ceylon
and the West Indies?"

The sudden silence which followed this inquiry was only broken by a low
whistle of wonder from Tom.

Roger, with a flush of colour on his pale cheeks, sat up and said, "What
is the story?"

Rosalind told it as nearly as possible in the tutor's own words.

"He did not tell you the name of the ship?" asked the doctor.

"No."

"Or the name of the man who was killed?"

"No."

There was another silence; it seemed as if they were sitting as
witnesses to the completion of some curious tunnelling operation, when
the party on one side suddenly catches sound of the pick-axe stroke of
the party on the other. Step by step the lost Roger Ingleton had been
tracked forward to the deck of this West India trading-ship; and
backward, step by step, the tutor's history went, till it almost touched
the same point.

"I expect," said Tom, with a cheerfulness hardly in accord with the
spirits of the company generally, "the fellow who was had by the shark
was the one, and Armstrong never knew it."

The profound young man had dropped on the very idea which was present in
the minds of each one.

"Wal," said the American mayor, "it may be so; but the question I'm
asking myself is this: If so, it's singular Mr Armstrong did not
mention the coincidence when you got the cablegram."

"Oh," said Roger, "at the time I was so cut up to find I'd failed after
all, that I didn't care to talk; and directly after that we met Ratman.
He had no chance."

"I calculate I'd like to ask your tutor one or two pertinent questions,"
said the Mayor.

The meeting was fully with him, when Tom broke out again--

"I say, I know. Let's ask Gustav. He's no end chummy with A