l sense of squeamishness, so I contented myself with
muttering a sea blessing upon the head of the unknown individual who had
deposited this "matter in the wrong place," and dashed up the hatchway
to relieve the impatient Keene.

I shivered and instinctively buttoned my jacket closely about me as I
stepped out on deck, for, mild and bland as the temperature actually
was, it felt raw and chill after the close, stifling atmosphere of the
midshipman's berth. It was very dark, for it was only just past the
date of the new moon, and the thin silver sickle--which was all that the
coy orb then showed of herself--had set some hours before; moreover,
there was a thin veil of mist or sea fog hanging upon the surface of the
water, through which only a few of the brighter stars could be faintly
distinguished near the zenith. There was no wind--it had fallen calm
the night before about sunset, and we were in the Horse latitudes--and
the frigate was rolling uneasily upon a short, steep swell that had come
creeping up out from the north-east during the middle watch, the
precursor, as we hoped, of the north-east trades--for we were in the
very heart of the North Atlantic, and bound to the West Indies. I duly
received the anathemas of my shipmate Keene at my tardy appearance on
deck, hurled a properly spirited retort after him down the hatchway, and
then made my way up the poop ladder to tramp out my watch on the lee
side of the deck--if there can be such a thing as a lee side when there
is no wind.

It was dreary work, this tramping fore and aft, fore and aft, with
nothing whatever to engage the attention, and nothing to do. I
therefore eagerly watched for, and hailed with delight, the first faint
pallid brightening of the eastern sky that heralded the dawn; for with
daylight there would at least be the ship's toilet to make--the decks to
holystone and scrub, brasswork and guns to clean and polish, the
paintwork to wash, sheets and braces to flemish-coil, and mayhap
something to see, as well as the possibility that with the rising of the
sun we might get a small slant of wind to push us a few miles nearer to
the region where the trade wind was merrily blowing.

The dawn came slowly--or perhaps it merely _seemed_ to my impatience to
do so--and with daylight the mist that had hung about the ship all night
thickened into a genuine, unmistakable fog, so thick that when standing
by the break of the poop it was impossible to see as far