y like us the better that, without much knowledge or seamanship, we
yet put our backs into what we did, and bade them do the same. Ludar,
indeed, born to command, was not sparing in his abuse of their laziness;
and it vexed me a little to see how he thereby made himself an enemy of
every man among them.

Towards nightfall we were all ship-shape, and the watch being set--of
which Ludar was one--I had leisure to go below to seek the sleep I
sorely needed. I would fain, before doing so, have visited the maiden
to satisfy myself that all went well with her. But I durst hardly
venture so far without her bidding. I sought my berth below,
therefore--and a vile, foul corner of the hold it was--and laid myself
down, wondering what would be the end of all this journeying.

There was a sailor--one of the Frenchmen--down beside me, who, when he
saw who I was, sat up and began to talk. In a foolish moment I betrayed
that I understood some of his French lingo, whereat he--being more than
half drunken--waxed civil, and his tongue loosed itself still more.

"Who is she?" he whispered presently, in his foreign tongue.

"A lady," said I, shortly.

"So! and monstrous rich, by our lady! Comrade," said he, "I helped
carry her box on board. Do you take me for a fool? There is something
weighs more in that than a maiden's frocks--eh, my friend?"

"You are a fool," said I.

"A fool? Ha! ha! 'Tis well. And I am fool enough to-- you be her man,
they say? and an honest fellow? Ha! ha!"

"Ay, ay," said I, drowsily enough, "let me go to sleep."

"Ay, ay," said he, "even if it be silver pieces and not gold, 'twill be
enough to make men of thee and me. Dost hear, sluggard? Thee and me,
and no more planks and ropes, and--"

I had ceased to hear his maunderings, and was sound asleep.

When I awoke, it was to hear the thundering crash of a wave on the deck
overhead, and I knew we were at last on the open sea. Alas! when I
turned over to recover my sleep, I fell into so horrible a fit of
shuddering and sickness that I believed the hour of my departure was
come. The ship rolled heavily through the uneasy water, and at every
lurch my heart sunk--I know not whither. I could hear the shuffling of
steps overhead, and the dash of the waves against the ship's side, and
the voice of the sailors at their posts. Little recked they of the
comrade who was dying below!

Presently a call came for the new watch to turn up on deck. I was