ot should have been productive of a certain uneasiness and disquiet of
mind throughout the ship.

At sunset, and for an hour or two afterwards, there was every prospect
of a fine clear night; but at about two bells in the first watch a thin
veil of vapour began to gather in the sky, gradually thickening and
blotting out the stars until they were all completely hidden, when the
darkness became profound. At this time--or rather, when we had last had
an opportunity of distinguishing distant objects--there were only some
eight or ten craft, all native, in sight, the nearest of which was fully
four miles distant; and they all, without exception, presented an
appearance of perfect honesty. Three or four of them were, like
ourselves, drifting idly, with their heads pointing in as many different
directions; the others had rigged out a sweep, or in some cases a pair,
and were slowly making their way inshore.

The baronet and I were reclining in contiguous chairs, placidly smoking
our post-prandial cigars; the ladies were below, Miss Merrivale being
seated at the piano, accompanying her sister, who--having by this time
quite recovered her health and spirits--was singing some quaint,
old-fashioned ballad in a full, rich contralto voice that could be
distinctly heard from one end of the ship to the other, and probably far
beyond. As for the chief mate, he was pacing the deck thoughtfully and
steadily to and fro with an energy that, taking the heat and closeness
of the night into consideration, seemed to bespeak an uneasy mind.
After a while he halted alongside the binnacle, gazed abstractedly into
it for about half a minute, and then, turning to the nodding helmsman,
inquired whether he knew where he was running the ship to.

"She hasn't had steerage-way on her since I came aft, at eight bells,
sir," was the reply.

"She hasn't, eh?" remarked Roberts. "Well, if that's the case, the
compass isn't of much use to you, is it? So," pulling off his jacket,
"as it's hardly worth while to proclaim our exact whereabouts to
everybody, we'll just mask the light until a breeze springs up."

Saying which, he laid his jacket very carefully over the hood of the
binnacle, completely obscuring the not very brilliant light that shone
therefrom.

"What is Roberts' idea in hiding the binnacle light in that fashion?"
asked Sir Edgar, turning to me, as the mate again walked forward,
pausing for some minutes near the head of the short poop lad