had made a point of being up and down every day,
and all day long, and I soon discovered that we were the objects of the
stealthy regard not only of the group on the forecastle but also of the
man at the wheel. But no child could have appeared more completely free
from care than she was; she chatted with me about Calcutta, and Simla,
described the characteristics of the several castes and classes of
natives, illustrating her description with amusing anecdotes that even
coaxed a smile upon the sullen, wooden visage of the fellow at the
wheel, and spoke of being reunited to her father with an absolute
confidence that left no room for even a shadow of suspicion that she
entertained the slightest doubt upon that subject.

A considerable period now elapsed without the occurrence of any incident
worthy of mention, except that I observed in the men a quite
extraordinary devotion to card-playing; they did no work of any kind
whatsoever beyond such necessary duties as making, shortening, or
trimming sale, as occasion demanded; and when they were not doing this
they were playing cards. I was at first somewhat puzzled to account for
the feverish and unflagging zeal with which this particular form of
amusement was pursued by all hands; for although sailors are fond of an
occasional quiet game of cards, they are, as a rule, by no means
devotees of the pasteboards. But at length I obtained enlightenment
from the man Harry: they were gambling with the gems for stakes! This
intelligence disquieted me greatly, for I foresaw possibilities of
trouble in it; and by and by it came. Meanwhile, however, I neglected
no opportunity to seek intelligence as to any change in the views of
these men with regard to the ultimate disposal of myself and Miss
Onslow, and learned from time to time--my informant, of course, being
Harry--that, so far, nothing had transpired justifying the suspicion
that any departure from the original plan was contemplated. This was,
in a measure, gratifying, in so far at least as that it still left me a
fair amount of time to evolve some satisfactory scheme for our
salvation--a task in which I had not yet succeeded, although I had
considered I might almost say hundreds of ideas, only to discard them as
either impracticable or unreliable.

At the moment of which I am now about to speak--we were drawing close on
toward the meridian of the Horn, but well to the south of it; and the
weather was what sailors call "dirty"