ly. I knew that Captain Roberts was a light sleeper, and judged that
it would not take much to awake him. Nor was I mistaken, for
immediately following upon my low knock came the quiet reply:

"Hillo! who is there, and what is it?"

"It is I--Temple--sir," I replied. "May I enter?"

For answer I heard the light thud of bare feet inside the cabin as the
skipper sprang from his bunk; and the next instant the door quietly
opened and Captain Roberts stood before me.

"What is it, Temple?" he demanded. "Anything wrong?"

"Yes, sir, I'm afraid there is," I replied in low tones. "Mr Bligh is
down in the forecastle, and he has just sent a message aft to me
directing me to call you and say that he is afraid fire has broken out
in the fore hold, and that he will be much obliged if you will kindly go
to him at once."

"Fire!" ejaculated the skipper. "In the fore hold, you say? Humph! I
don't notice any smell of it here," and he started sniffing violently as
he stooped for his slippers and put them on. "Who gave the alarm?"

"Mason, sir," I replied. "He came aft, just after two bells, and
reported a strong smell of burning down in the forecastle. Mr Bligh
went for'ard at once, leaving me to keep a lookout on the poop; and he
had been gone about five minutes when Mason again came aft with a
message directing me to call you."

"I see," answered the skipper. "Very well," as he emerged from his
cabin and quietly closed the door behind him, "you go back to the poop
and keep an eye upon the ship. I shall not be long." And with one
bound, as it seemed to me, he was out on deck and running forward. As
for me, I returned to my station on the poop, which I anxiously paced
backward and forward in momentary expectation of hearing the call for
"All hands!"

But when I came to look more closely it appeared that any such formal
call would be quite superfluous, for presently a light flashed out from
the windows of the small house just abaft the foremast, in which the
boatswain, carpenter, sailmaker, cook, and the two stewards were
berthed, and by its rather feeble beams I perceived that the fore deck
was full of men crouching under the shelter of the topgallant
forecastle; I presumed, therefore, that upon the first alarm of fire
they had turned out and dressed, and had been sent on deck by the mate
to be out of the way while the investigation below was being made. It
was about this time that I noticed, with keen satisfact