hat Jarvis was wrong, and that Captain
Macnaughten's boat and Mr. Ingpen's, in one way or another, met with
a short sharp end in that gale.

"But if they did last it out and over the horizon to drag it out and
die and never be reported to Lloyd's, then I, who know the sort of
things they must have suffered, assure you, who have read them
accurately reported in books, that whenever or wherever Captain James
Macnaughten perished, the Recording Angel has him entered up for a
seaman and a gentleman."

NIGHT THE SEVENTEENTH.

NO. 2 BOAT.

(Foe's Narrative Continued.)

"One must use ugly words for ugly things.

"Grimalson, staring--as we all stared--over the blank sea, vomited
the natural man within him in some fourteen or fifteen words for
which he was never forgiven by any of us.

"'Gone, by Gosh! And that bloody old fool was teaching _me_ to
handle a boat!'

"All heard it. Not a soul spoke. I glanced at Jarvis in time to
catch the twitch of his mouth--one of those twitches I used to study
in angry dogs, and snapshot and measure: but he continued to gaze
across the waters. After half a minute or so he glanced at me,
looked seaward again, and observed quietly, 'It don't seem probable
they would run mast-down in the time. And yet I don't know: 'twas
blowing powerful fresh just after midnight. Hull-down, a boat might
easily be; and supposing sail lowered, what's a boat's mast better to
pick up than a needle in a bottle o' hay?--let be they might be
dismasted. There was weather enough. And No. 1 carried a bamboo--
which is never to be trusted, if you ask _me_.'

"'Who the devil's asking you?' demanded Grimalson.

"'Nobody, sir,' the seaman answered, respectfully, but without
turning his head. 'Words spoken in a l'il boat like this be for
anybody's hearin'; and anybody's heard or no, accordin' as they
choose.'

"'Well then,' Grimalson retorted, 'I happen to be boss here aboard,
and I don't choose. So drop you that, prompt, and start baling her.'

"'One moment, Mr. Grimalson--' I began. But he took me up quicker
than he had taken Jarvis.

"'Dear me, now!' he snarled in a foolish sarcastic way. 'And who may
this be that I have the honour of addressing?--Captain Macnaughten's
ghost? or his next-of-kin, belike? Or may be his deputy
understudy?--with your _One moment, please_? . . . You sit down on
that thwart there, and don't you dare open your face again until I
give you leave. . . . That was t