night. I wonder if
'tis on the roof still. It will be froze pretty stiff by this.
You might nip up and see, Snipe, and"--he paused--"if you find it, stow
it up yonder on Bill's hammock."

The Gaffer opened his mouth, but shut it again without speaking.
The Snipe went up the ladder.

A minute passed; and then they heard a cry from the roof--a cry that
fetched them all trembling, choking, weeping, cheering, to the foot of
the ladder.

"Boys! boys!--the Sun!"

Months later--it was June, and even George Lashman had recovered his
strength--the Snipe came running with news of the whaling fleet. And on
the beach, as they watched the vessels come to anchor, Long Ede told the
Gaffer his story. "It was a hall--a hallu--what d'ye call it, I reckon.
I was crazed, eh?" The Gaffer's eyes wandered from a brambling hopping
about the lichen-covered boulders, and away to the sea-fowl wheeling
above the ships: and then came into his mind a tale he had read once in
"The Turkish Spy." "I wouldn't say just that," he answered slowly.

"Anyway," said Long Ede, "I believe the Lord sent a miracle to us to
save us all."

"I wouldn't say just that, either," the Gaffer objected. "I doubt it
was meant just for you and me, and the rest were presairved, as you
might say incidentally."

THE ROOM OF MIRRORS

A late hansom came swinging round the corner into Lennox Gardens,
cutting it so fine that the near wheel ground against the kerb and
jolted the driver in his little seat. The jingle of bells might have
warned me; but the horse's hoofs came noiselessly on the half-frozen
snow, which lay just deep enough to hide where the pavement ended and
the road began; and, moreover, I was listening to the violins behind the
first-floor windows of the house opposite. They were playing the
"Wiener Blut."

As it was, I had time enough and no more to skip back and get my toes
out of the way. The cabby cursed me. I cursed him back so promptly and
effectively that he had to turn in his seat for another shot.
The windows of the house opposite let fall their light across his red
and astonished face. I laughed, and gave him another volley. My head
was hot, though my feet and hands were cold; and I felt equal to cursing
down any cabman within the four-mile radius. That second volley
finished him. He turned to his reins again and was borne away defeated;
the red eyes of his lamps peering back at me like an angry ferret's.

Up in the ligh