hotly, and it may be that as I grew hot I raised my voice a trifle,
which is a way of mine; and, indeed, my voice is never a good whispering
voice. I entreated Lancelot, at all events, to have a very watchful eye
upon Jensen, and I urged that on the first symptom of anything in the
least like double-dealing he should place Jensen under arrest.

Lancelot listened to me very patiently. He was impressed by my
earnestness, and at last promised that he would scrutinise Jensen's
actions very narrowly, and that if he saw anything that was at all
suspicious in his demeanour he would immediately take steps to render
him harmless. At this I pressed Lancelot's hand warmly, and was about
to leave him and go below when I fancied that I heard steps stealing
away from us very softly, from the other side of the pile of barrels and
boxes by which we stood. I whipped out of my corner and round the pile
in an instant, but there was no one there, and I could neither see nor
hear anything suspicious. Lancelot declared that I was as suspicious as
an old maid of her neighbour's hens. I echoed his laughter as well as I
could, but I went below again with a heavy heart, for I was oppressed
with a sense of danger which I dreaded the more because it seemed to
lurk in darkness. I had laid me down again with no very great hope of
sleep, but I had no sooner laid my head upon its pillow than I fell into
a most uneasy slumber, in which all my apprehensions and all our perils
seemed to be multiplied and magnified a hundredfold. A nightmare terror
brooded upon my breast. Suddenly I imagined, in the swift changes of my
dream, that we were sinking, and that the vessel was going to pieces
with great crashes. I awoke with a start, to find that the noises of my
dream were being continued into my waking life. The deck above was noisy
with trampling feet and confused cries. For a moment I sat up, dizzy
with surprise, and unable to realise whether I was awake or asleep.
Then I pulled my wits together, and was on deck in a trice.

I caught hold of a sailor who was hurrying rapidly by, and asked him
what was the matter. He answered me that there was a man overboard, and
that they were doing all they could to save him by casting over the side
spars and timbers that would float, in the hope that he might be able to
catch one of them. The deck was all confusion, men running hither and
thither, and some hanging over the bulwarks and peering into the
darkness, in the