equence of the extreme heat of his cabin. The night was
brilliantly starlit, and the air so clear that we could have easily
distinguished a sail at a distance of two miles, had there been owe to
see; but the light was not strong enough to enable me clearly to
distinguish Brown's features, even when he was standing beside me, while
the cabin lamp was turned low, so that there was not much light coming
through the skylight. But when the old fellow fell into step by my
side, and began to talk quite rationally about the heat below, the
impossibility of sleeping, and his gratification at the fine breeze
which we had fallen in with, and so on, I was completely thrown off my
guard; for he appeared to be in precisely the condition that I had often
previously seen him in, when he had talked rationally enough for a time,
taken a little walk--as he was doing at that moment--and then, suddenly
forgetting what he was conversing about, gone below and slept for
several hours.

All at once, as we were walking to and fro between the main rigging and
the wheel grating, the old fellow halted, pulled off his cap, extracted
a big bandana handkerchief from it, and proceeded to mop his head and
face, from which--as in my own case--the perspiration was freely
pouring.

"Great snakes," he ejaculated, "but it is hot, and no mistake! The
sweat's pourin' out o' me like water outen a sponge. I guess that's
what's makin' me so all-fired thirsty. Where's the water cask? I'm
boun' to have a drink. My tongue's so dry it's rattlin' agin my teeth!
Can't ye hear it? Where's that there scuttle butt, I say?"

"Better not drink direct from the cask, sir," I said, for Cunningham had
strongly urged us all to drink nothing but filtered water, and even that
with a dash of lime juice in it, during the extreme heat. "The filter
stands on the sideboard, and there is an opened bottle of lime juice in
the rack above it; you will find that very much cooler and more
refreshing than the water from the scuttle butt. That stuff is really
not fit to drink."

"But I'm so tarnation thirsty that I must have a drink," he insisted,
"and I'd rather drink outer the cask than go below. Why, man alive,
that there cabin is like a oven!"

"Oh," said I, glancing hastily round and noting that the weather seemed
fine and settled, "if that is all I'll very soon slip down and fetch you
up a drink! Bring yourself to an anchor here on the wheel grating, sir,
while I go bel