e, and I stood in a little gust of doubt which
shook me. Should I sleep over the new discovery? I had Ellison, a
Didymus, for witness, but I was still sore from the reception of my
previous news. I took the length of the deck, and looked over the poop
where a faint trail of light spumed in the wake of the ship. Suddenly I
was seized from behind, lifted by a powerful arm, and thrown violently
upon the taffrail. It struck me heavily upon the thighs, and I plunged
with my hands desperately in the air, lost my balance, and pitched over
head foremost towards the bubbling water.

As I fell my shoulder struck the bulge of the iron carcase of the
vessel, and I cannoned off into the void, but by the merest chance my
clutching hands in that instant caught in the hitch of a rope which had
strayed overboard. The loop ran out with my wrist in it, and I hit the
water. Its roar was in my ears, but nothing else, and when I rose to
the surface the ship was thirty yards away. But the rope was still over
my arm, and as soon as I recovered breath I began to haul myself slowly
and painfully in. As it was, I was being torn through the water at the
rate of from twelve to fourteen knots an hour, and in a very few
minutes the chill which my immersion had inflicted on me passed away,
giving place to a curious warmth that stole throughout my limbs, and
enabled me to continue the onward struggle. I drew nearer foot by foot,
the sea racing past me, and burying my face constantly in floods of
salt water. But I was encouraged to observe the _Sea Queen_ was now
perceptibly closer, and I clung and hauled and hauled again. My danger
now was the screw, and I could hear the thumping of the steel blades
below, and see the boiling pit under the stern by the vessel. If I
hauled closer should I be dragged into that terrible maelstrom, and be
drawn under the deadly and merciless machinery? I could see the open
taffrail, through which the stars glimmered away above me. It seemed
that safety was so near and yet so far. She rolled, and the lights of
the port-holes flashed lanterns on the sea in that uprising. I raised
my voice, helplessly, hopelessly, in a cry.

I repeated this shout three times, and then I saw a man come and hang
over the taffrail. Was it the unknown murderer, and did he look for his
victim to complete his abominable job? As the thought struck me I was
silent, and then I saw him stoop and examine the iron stanchions at his
feet. Next I felt the