ct, sir," persisted the first mate.
"We're quite surrounded by the weed. I saw it well the first streak of
light at two bells, on suddenly looking over the side, sir. There's Mr
O'Neil up on the bridge now, and he has noticed it too!"

The skipper, to judge from the voice that came from his cabin and the
way he was banging his boots and other things about, was as much
mystified by Mr Fosset's unexpected announcement as he had been the
previous evening by the sight he and I and the boatswain had seen.

He was also angry, I know, so I thought it good for me to turn out
likewise from my bunk as speedily as possible, it not being advisable
under the circumstances to be "caught napping."

"By George, I can't understand it!" repeated Captain Applegarth crossly.
"If we're in the Gulf Stream, all I can say is, we must have drifted a
wonderful distance in the last two or three days. Why, man, the current
is seldom perceptible above the fortieth parallel!"

"I know that, sir," replied the first mate; "but if you recollect, sir,
from the lunar observation Mr O'Neil took on the night of the
breakdown, we were then as far south as 41 deg. 30 minutes, and we've been
drifting south-east by east ever since."

"Well, Fosset, I'm hanged if I know where we are, after the bucketting-
about we've had since last Friday!" said the skipper, who now came into
the saloon, where I, already dressed, was hurriedly having a cup of
cocoa and bite of biscuit Weston had just brought me in from the pantry.
"I feel half inclined to believe now in the old superstition about it
being an unlucky day, though I always used to laugh at the notion!"

"There are plenty aboard who believe queerer things than that!" said Mr
Fosset drily, with a meaning glance in my direction, eyeing my cocoa as
if he rather fancied a cup himself. "I say, Haldane, that cocoa smells
good!"

"It's not half bad, sir," I replied grinning. "Perhaps you would like
some too, sir. Weston's got a lot more inside here, hot, just fetched
from the galley!"

"I don't mind if I do have a cup," said he. "Will you join me, cap'en?"

"No, thanks; I'm too worried. I'll wait till breakfast," said the
skipper, turning to go up on deck by the companion-way and hitching his
cap off the hook by his cabin door. "You won't be long, I hope, eh?"

"I'll follow you up in a jiffey, sir, as soon as I have swallowed a
toothful of this warm stuff to keep out the cold. Hi, steward?"

"Aye, ay