ven us
something to think of--and something pretty tall, too."

I shrugged my shoulders. "I suppose it is my word against Holgate's," I
said wearily.

"Holgate's!" he said, lowering his sextant swiftly. "Holgate's! I
wouldn't trust Holgate if he were on a dozen oaths--not if he were
swung at a yard-arm, and were making Christian confession," he said
passionately.

"Nor would I," I said softly after a pause. We exchanged glances. He
resumed his sextant.

"The only thing to be done," he said, "is to keep a watch. We shall
know shortly. Excuse me, doctor, I must take the bearings."

Routine must go on aboard ship, but this cool attitude, reasonable as
it was, was not to my taste in my condition. Things moved as smoothly
as before; the watch came and went, and the bells tolled regularly; but
with the knowledge that I had that something evil was brewing, I
fretted and worried and grew out of temper. The powers that were
responsible for the safety of the ship and her good conduct were
indifferent to the danger, or else incredulous. I alone knew how
incompetent was the captain to secure his vessel, and the attitude of
"Mr. Morland" filled me with contempt. It was very well for a royal
prince in his palace, surrounded by his guard, servitors, and
dependants, to assume an autocratic attitude, and take things for
granted. But it was another case when he had deliberately abandoned
that security and launched himself upon a romantic, not to say
quixotic, career, in which nothing was certain. Yet upon the promenade
deck the Prince and his sister took their constitutionals as if nothing
had happened or would happen, and, as before, Mlle. Trebizond joined
them, and her laugh floated down to us, musical and clear. Would
nothing make them understand the peril in which they stood?

In all this vexation of spirit I still found time to be amused by Lane.
The affair of Adams was, necessarily, public property, and the inquiry
promised by Day was in process. Adams was gone, gone overboard, as I
knew, and I could have put my hand on his murderer, if I could not also
identify the man who had made an attempt to be mine. Lane, on the
rumour of the night's proceedings reaching him, sought me, and
complained. It was ludicrous, but it was characteristic of the man, as
I had come to know him.

"Where do I come in?" he asked plaintively. "You might have given me a
call, doctor."

"I wish I had been sleeping as sound as you," I said.

"Oh,