the moon if the luminary fell from the sky,
and with as little comprehension of the cause of its falling.

Of course, she took the question as a forerunner of blank denial. This
was not to be borne. She fired into a direct attack.

"If your memory is hazy concerning the events of Sunday afternoon, it
may be helpful if I recall the conversation between my uncle and you in
the summer-house," she snapped.

Some of the glow fled from Coke's face. He straightened himself and
glanced at the sailor inside the wheel-house, whose attention was given
instantly to the fact that the vessel's head had fallen away a full
point or more from South 15 West owing to the easterly set of a strong
tide. Vessels' heads are apt to turn when steersmen do not attend to
their business.

"Wot's that you're sayin'?" demanded Coke, coming nearer, and looking
her straight in the eyes.

"I heard every word of that interesting talk," she continued valiantly,
though she was sensible of a numbness that seemed to envelop her in an
ice-cold mist. "I know what you arranged to do--so I have promised--to
marry Mr. Bulmer--when the _Andromeda_--comes back----"

A light broke on Coke's intelligence that irradiated his prominent
eyes. His heavy lips relaxed into a cunning grin, and he flicked the
ash off the end of the cigar with a confidential nod.

"Oh, is _that_ it?" he said. "Artful old dog, Verity! But why in--why
didn't 'e tell me you was comin' aboard this trip? We 'aven't the
right fixin's for a lady, so you must put up with the best we can do
for you, Miss Yorke. Nat'rally, we're tickled to death to 'ave your
company, an' if on'y that blessed uncle of your's 'ad told me wot to
expect, I'd 'ave made things ship-shape at Liverpool. But, my
god-father, wot sort of ijjit axed you to stow yourself away in the
lazareet? Steady now; you ain't a-goin' to faint, are you?"

Coke's amiability came too late. His squat figure and red face
suddenly loomed into a gigantic indistinctness in the girl's eyes. She
would have fallen to the deck had not the captain's strong hands
clutched her by the shoulders.

"Hi! Below there!" he yelled. "Tumble up, some of you!"

Hozier was the first to gain the bridge. He had followed the progress
of events with sufficient accuracy to realize that Miss Iris Yorke had
met with a distinct rebuff by the skipper, and, judging from his own
experience of her physical weakness when she emerged into daylight, he
w