es near, suddenly risen out of the flood, and I perceived two
men had landed. They paused by me for one to relight his pipe, and in
the flash of the match I gathered from the dresses that they were
stevedores, newly come, no doubt, from unloading some vessel. But my
attention was taken off them unexpectedly by a great flare that went up
into the sky apparently in mid-channel. It made a big bright flame,
quite unusual in that resort of silent lights, and one of the
stevedores commented on it.

"That'll be her," he said; "she was coming up round the Dogs in a
la-di-da fashion. Maybe she'll fly rockets in another minute."

"Them steam-yachts are the jockeys to blue the money," responded his
companion. "Nothink's good enough for them."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Only a Geordie brig straight from winning the America Cup, sir," said
the first man with a facetious smile. "What did they make her out,
Bill?"

Bill hesitated. "I think it was the _Sea Queen_," he said doubtfully,
and added, in harmony with his companion's mood:

"They don't want to make themselves known, not by a long chalk."

With which, the flare having died down, they tramped away into the
night with a civil leave-taking.

I followed them presently, moving along the road in the direction of
the docks. When I reached the entrance I paused, and the gatekeeper
addressed me.

"Going in, doctor? Got a call?"

I recognised him in the dimness of his lamp as a man whom I had
attended for an accident, and I gave him good evening.

"No," said I, "but I want some air. I think I will, if you don't mind."

"Welcome, sir," said he cheerily, and I found myself on the other side
of the gateway.

I walked along the vacant stretch of ground, lit only by dull
gas-lamps, and, passing the low office buildings and storing sheds,
came out by the water-basins. Here was a scene of some bustle and
disorder, but it was farther on that the spectators were engaged in a
knot, for the caisson was drifting round, and a handsome vessel was
floating in, her funnel backed against the grey darkness and her spars
in a ghostly silhouette. The name I heard on several sides roused in me
a faint curiosity. It was the stranger I had observed, the _Sea Queen_,
the subject of the stevedores' pleasantries.

"A pretty boat," said I to my neighbour. "What is she?"

He shook his head. "_Sea Queen_ out of Hamburg," he said, "and a
pleasure yacht from the look of her. But what she does here b