; but he's quite off his head, and if he says do, his
advice ain't worth having, for he'll never know he said it."

All the same, in his terrible perplexity, Mark crawled over the thwarts
and between the men to where the coxswain lay muttering incessantly
right forward, with his head resting against the pole of his hitcher;
but in spite of appeal after appeal the man lay with his eyes fixed,
quite insensible to every word addressed to him, and the midshipman
crept back to where Tom Fillot sat.

"I'm nobody, sir, only a common man afore the mast, so it's like
impidence for me to offer to share the responsibility with a young gent
like you. But being half as old again, I may say I know a little of
what a man ought to do in a case like this; and I say that as you're now
in command, sir, it's your duty to us, as well as to the dead."

"No, no," groaned Mark. "We may be overtaken by the ship at any time."

"Look here; it's of no use for you to shrink from it. Recollect where
we are. You must."

But still Mark shook his head.

"It ain't as if we could do him any good, sir."

"But without Christian burial, Tom Fillot."

"He warn't a Christian, sir," said the sailor, slowly. "I'm only an
ignorant man, but I've heerd say that you were a parson's son, sir, and
know what's right to do at such a time. Mr Vandean, sir, you must."

Mark heaved a sigh, rose in the boat, and looked round him, trying to
pierce the gloom in search of help out of his difficulty; but the moon
was hidden by a black cloud, and look which way he would there was
naught but the thick darkness hemming him in. With a piteous sigh he
turned back to where the sailor sat waiting, made a sign, and then sank
upon his knees in the bottom of the boat, feeling for the first few
moments utterly alone.

The next minute the feeling of loneliness had passed away, and firm and
strong at heart, he raised his head, and made a fresh sign to his
companion, who had followed his example, and who now rose and stepped
over to the very stern of the boat, to stand with his back to his young
officer. Then as he bent down it seemed to Mark as if the darkness had
grown more profound, till there was a faint rustling noise, and a soft
plunge in the black water, followed by a faint rippling whisper against
the sides. Directly after the moon appeared from behind the thick mass
of clouds and shed a path of silver over the sea, till it flooded the
part where the cutter lay;