re it isn't a cat?"

A low deep moaning sound that was smothered and strange came from below,
and the mate gave a stamp with his foot on the deck.

"No mistake, Gregory," said the second-mate.

"Mistake! No. It's a man or a boy. He deserves to be left; he does,
upon my honour."

"Yes, we all deserve more than we get," said the second-mate patiently.
"Here, what do you make of it? The sound puzzles me, and I don't know
where to begin."

The mate descended, the second-mate followed, and a big dark fellow with
a silver whistle hanging from his neck was about to step down next, but
he made way for Mark, who slipped down the steps, to the great dismay of
Bruff, who sat on the top looking over the coamings, and whining in a
low tone.

Mark found himself upon a lower deck, with a hole in it of similar
dimensions to that through which he had passed. Mr Gregory was
lowering himself down upon the cargo, the second-mate followed, and then
gave orders for silence.

This stopped the buzzing conversation of the men, who all seemed to be
scared, and now the moaning sound came from somewhere--a faint, dismal,
despairing "Oh! Oh! Oh!" of some one in sore distress.

"Humph!" ejaculated the mate, "I suppose we must behave like Christians
and get him out. But when I do! Here! Below there: where are you?"

No response; only the continuous moaning.

"Do you hear there? Answer--where are you?" shouted the second-mate
with his mouth down to an opening in the great packages beneath their
feet.

Still no reply but this dismal moaning "Oh!" a piteous appeal in its
way, which made Mark shudder.

"I'll try again," said the first-mate. "Here, hi! Where are you?"

He paused, and they all listened. He shouted again and again, but with
no result, and turning to the second-mate he said:

"The poor wretch is insensible, I'm afraid."

"Yes, he seems beyond answering. Where do you make him out to be?"

"That's what I can't make out," said the first-mate. "It's just as if
he were practising ventriloquism. Sometimes it sounds to the right and
sometimes to the left."

"Yes, that's how it strikes me," said the second-mate. "Listen,
youngster. Here: silence there on deck!"

A pin fall might have been heard the next moment, and the silence was
broken by the low piteous moan.

"It seems down here at one time, and then more forward there," said
Mark.

"Yes, it does now," said the first-mate. "Here, Billy Widgeon, Small