o next.
'Do?' said he; 'there is nothing to do; I've done everything that I can
do. I'm all upset; I don't know whether I am myself or some other man';
and then he walked away.

"I sat there and smoked and looked at them, and I can tell you the
sight wasn't cheerful. There was the ship, just as good and sound, as
far as anybody could see, as anything that floated on the ocean, and
here were all her people, shivering and shaking and not speaking above
their breath, looking for all the world, under the light of the stars
and the ship's lamps, which some of them had had sense enough to light,
as if they expected in the course of the next half-hour, to be made to
walk the plank; and, to tell the truth, what they were afraid of would
come to pretty much the same thing."

"Mr. Cardly," here interrupted Mr. Harberry, "how long does it take to
count a million?"

"That depends," said the school-master, "on the rapidity of the
calculator; some calculators count faster than others. An ordinary boy,
counting two hundred a minute, would require nearly three days and a
half to count a million."

"Very good," said Mr. Harberry; "please go on with your story, sir."

"Of course," said the marine, "there is a great difference between a
boy and a Water-devil, and it is impossible for anybody to know how
fast the latter can count, especially as he may be supposed to be used
to it. Well, I couldn't stand it any longer on deck, and having
nothing else to do, I turned in and went to sleep."

"To sleep! Went to sleep!" exclaimed Mrs. Fryker. "I don't see how you
could have done that."

"Ah, madam," said the marine, "we soldiers of the sea are exposed to
all sorts of dangers,--combination dangers, you might call them,--and
in the course of time we get used to it; if we didn't we couldn't do
our duty.

"As the ship had been in its present predicament for six or seven
hours, and nothing had happened, there was no reason to suppose that
things would not remain as they were for six or seven hours more, in
which time I might get a good sleep, and be better prepared for what
might come. There's nothing like a good meal and a good sleep as a
preparation for danger.

"It was daylight when I awakened, and rapidly glancing about me, I saw
that everything appeared to be all right. Looking out of the port-hole,
I could see that the vessel was still motionless. I hurried on deck,
and was greatly surprised to find nobody there--no one on wat