t's lift of me, sir!"

"How's that?--I was just going to send down to your cabin to rouse you
out."

"Begorrah, its moighty little rousin' I want, sor! The ould barquey's
that lively that she'd wake a man who'd been d'id for a wake, sure!
I've been so rowled about in me burth and banged agin' the bulkheads
that my bones fell loike jelly and I'm blue-mouldy all over. But what
d'ye want, cap'en? Sure, I'm helping the youngster with this whale
here."

"By jingo!" cried the skipper, "you're the right man in the right
place!"

"Faith, that's what the gaolor s'id to the burghlor, sor, when he fixed
him up noicely on the treadmill!"

The skipper laughed.

"Well, you fix up your job all right, and you'll be as good as your
friend the gaoler," he said. "When we have the helm all alaunto again,
we can bear up on our course and jog along comfortably. I think we are
lucky to have got off so lightly, considering the wind and sea, with
this steering gear breaking down at such an awkward moment!"

"Ah, we ain't seed the worse on it yet, and you'd better not holler till
ye're out o' the wood!" muttered old Masters under his breath, in reply
to this expression of opinion of the skipper, the boatswain having come
to our assistance with all the hands he could muster, so as to get the
wheel below the bridge in working order as soon as possible. "I knowed
that this ghost-ship meant sumkin' and we ain't come to the end o' the
log yet!"

Almost as he uttered the words, Mr Fosset came up the engine-room
hatchway and made his way hurriedly towards us.

"By jingo, Fosset, here you are at last!" exclaimed the skipper on
seeing him. "I thought you were never coming up again, finding it so
jolly warm and comfortable below! Are things all right there now, and
are the bilge-pumps working?"

Captain Applegarth spoke jocosely enough, everything being pretty easy
on deck and the ship breasting the gale like a duck, but Mr Fosset's
face, I noticed, looked grave and he answered the other in a more
serious fashion than his general wont, his mouth working nervously in
the pale moonlight that lent him a more pallid air as the words dropped
from his lips, making his countenance, indeed, almost like that of a
corpse.

"But what, man!" exclaimed the skipper impatiently, interrupting his
slow speech before Mr Fosset could get any further. "Anything wrong,
eh?"

"Yes, sir, I'm sorry to say something is very wrong, I fear--very wrong
bel