y of the _Seagull's_ skipper--Captain Wilkinson--she
had experienced extremely bad weather for some days, and, becoming
almost unmanageable, had been run down by a large liner in the middle of
a dark night at the height of the gale.

Whether the liner was British or foreign, Captain Wilkinson could not
state; but, in any case, she had continued on her way without attempting
to stand by to save life. The _Seagull_ foundered in less than ten
minutes, Captain Knowlton persisting in his refusal to leave in the
first, and--as Captain Wilkinson declared--the only, boat which got
away. He had done his utmost to stand by, in spite of the fury of the
gale; but when day broke, and the storm to some degree abated, there was
no sign of either Captain Knowlton or the _Seagull_. That she had
foundered with the remainder of the crew and her owner the skipper had
not the slightest doubt, although he went as far as to admit, to the
newspaper reporter, the possibility that the small boat in which he had
escaped might have drifted some distance from the scene of the wreck in
the darkness.

My only gleam of hope was due to Mr. Bosanquet, although I felt inclined
to discount this, because he was given to look at the brightest side of
things, and often predicted fine weather just before a storm.

'Still,' he urged, 'you do not know for certain that Captain Knowlton
was drowned. I admit there is a great probability that you will never
see him again, but, after all, it is quite within the bounds of
possibility that the skipper's boat drifted away, and that the owner and
the rest of the crew managed to leave the _Seagull_. Of course,' he
added, 'if I am right, you are pretty certain to hear something farther
in a week or two.'

Accordingly I lived in the most acute suspense during the next few days;
but the time passed without news of Captain Knowlton, and such faint
hope as I had cherished faded entirely away. In the meantime it seemed
evident that Mr. and Mrs. Turton had not shared it. I learned from
Augustus that his father had written to Mr. Windlesham, asking that I
might be removed from Ascot House as a bad bargain.

Moreover, I began to observe a kind of resentfulness in Mr. Turton's
demeanour, and especially in his wife's. It was rumoured in the school
that they were 'hard up,' and hence the shorter supplies of meat and
butter. But it was Augustus who first made me realise my new situation.

'I say, Everard,' he said, when we were