taken up again in this dim _inferno_, to
an accompaniment of plunging, hollow-sounding bows and the rattling
spray-showers overhead.

All seemed unfit for conversation; a certain dizziness had interrupted
the activity of their minds; and except to sing they were tongue-tied.
There was present, however, one tall, powerful fellow of doubtful
nationality, being neither quite Scotsman nor altogether Irish, but of
surprising clearness of conviction on the highest problems. He had gone
nearly beside himself on the Sunday, because of a general backwardness
to indorse his definition of mind as "a living, thinking substance which
cannot be felt, heard, or seen"--nor, I presume, although he failed to
mention it, smelt. Now he came forward in a pause with another
contribution to our culture.

"Just by way of change," said he, "I'll ask you a Scripture riddle.
There's profit in them too," he added ungrammatically.

This was the riddle--

C and P
Did agree
To cut down C;
But C and P
Could not agree
Without the leave of G.
All the people cried to see
The crueltie
Of C and P.

Harsh are the words of Mercury after the songs of Apollo! We were a long
while over the problem, shaking our heads and gloomily wondering how a
man could be such a fool; but at length he put us out of suspense and
divulged the fact that C and P stood for Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate.

I think it must have been the riddle that settled us; but the motion and
the close air likewise hurried our departure. We had not been gone long,
we heard next morning, ere two or even three out of the five fell sick.
We thought it little wonder on the whole, for the sea kept contrary all
night. I now made my bed upon the second cabin floor, where, although I
ran the risk of being stepped upon, I had a free current of air, more or
less vitiated indeed, and running only from steerage to steerage, but at
least not stagnant; and from this couch, as well as the usual sounds of
a rough night at sea, the hateful coughing and retching of the sick and
the sobs of children, I heard a man run wild with terror beseeching his
friend for encouragement. "The ship's going down!" he cried with a
thrill of agony. "The ship's going down!" he repeated, now in a blank
whisper, now with his voice ri