"I dunno," said Bill, who was at the wheel, shakily. "Mrs. Blossom come
up on deck a little while ago, and since then there's been three or four
heavy splashes."

"She can't have gone overboard," said the skipper, in tones to which
he manfully strove to impart a semblance of anxiety. "No, here she is.
Anything wrong, Mrs. Blossom?"

"Not so far as I'm concerned," replied the lady, passing him and going
below.

"You've been dreaming, Bill," said the skipper sharply.

"I ain't," said Bill stoutly. "I tell you I heard splashes. It's my
belief she coaxed the cook up on deck, and then shoved him overboard. A
woman could do anything with a man like that cook."

"I'll soon see," said the mate, and walking forward he put his head down
the fore-scuttle and yelled for the cook.

"Aye, aye, sir," answered a voice sleepily, while the other men started
up in their bunks. "Do you want me?"

"Bill thinks somebody has gone overboard," said the mate. "Are you all
here?"

In answer to this the mystified men turned out all standing, and came
on deck yawning and rubbing their eyes, while the mate explained the
situation. Before he had finished the cook suddenly darted off to the
galley, and the next moment the forlorn cry of a bereaved soul broke on
their startled ears.

"What is it?" cried the mate.

"Come here!" shouted the cook, "look at this!"

He struck a match and held it aloft in his shaking fingers, and the men,
who were worked up to a great pitch of excitement and expected to see
something ghastly, after staring hard for some time in vain, profanely
requested him to be more explicit.

"She's thrown all the saucepans and things overboard," said the cook
with desperate calmness. "This lid of a tea kettle is all that's left
for me to do the cooking in."

* * * * *

The Gannet, manned by seven famine-stricken misogynists, reached
London six days later, the skipper obstinately refusing to put in at an
intermediate port to replenish his stock of hardware. The most he would
consent to do was to try and borrow from a passing vessel, but the
unseemly behaviour of the master of a brig, who lost two hours owing
to their efforts to obtain a saucepan of him, utterly discouraged any
further attempts in that direction, and they settled down to a diet of
biscuits and water, and salt beef scorched on the stove.

Mrs. Blossom, unwilling perhaps to witness their sufferings, remained
below, and when they reac