and
fell into deep thought. Stranleigh followed him.

"Give me your ticket," he said.

Hazel took it from his pocket and handed it over.

"Have you any luggage?"

"Only a portmanteau, which I placed in my bunk. It contains a certain
amount of necessary linen."

"Wait here until I find out what there is to be had in the first cabin."

Stranleigh went down to the purser, and that overworked official threw
him a friendly glance, which nevertheless indicated that his time was
valuable.

"My name is Trevelyan," said the young man.

"Oh, yes, Mr. Trevelyan. You have our premier suite. How do you like
your accommodation?"

"I haven't seen it yet. I have just discovered a friend, a rather
eccentric man, who had made up his mind to cross the Atlantic in the
steerage. One of those silly bets, you know, which silly young men make
in our silly London clubs, and I have persuaded him out of it."

"Our steerage is supposed to be rather comfortable, Mr. Trevelyan."

"So he says, but I want his company on deck, and not on the steerage
deck at that. Have you got anything vacant along my avenue?"

The purser consulted his written list.

"Nobody with him?"

"He's quite alone."

"All the larger cabins are taken, but I can give him No. 4390."

"I suppose, like your steerage, it is comfortable?" said Stranleigh,
with a smile.

"It is, yet it's not a private hotel like your quarters."

"Oh, he'll not grumble. Will you send a steward to carry his portmanteau
from the number indicated on this steerage ticket to his new room?
Meanwhile, I'll have transferred to him his luggage that I brought from
London."

The purser rapidly wrote out a new ticket, and took the difference in
five-pound notes.

"Are you going to your quarters now?" the purser asked.

"Yes, I must give some instructions to my man."

"Then it will give me great pleasure to show you the way there," said
the purser, rising and locking the door; and in spite of Stranleigh's
protest against his taking the trouble, he led him to a series of rooms
that would have satisfied a much more exacting person than his young
lordship. When the purser had returned to his duties, Stranleigh said to
Ponderby--

"The Hon. John Hazel is aboard, and his cabin is No. 4390. He had to
leave London in a great hurry and without the necessary luggage."

Ponderby's eyes lit up with an expression which said--"I knew that would
happen sooner or later." But he uttered no word, and