til the Cross was visible. His orders have been obeyed quite
literally. He will be summoned in another hour, and you have been
dragged from bed to gaze at the False Cross, which every foremast hand
persists in regarding as the real article. The true Cross, of which
Alpha Crucis is the Southern Pole star, comes up over the horizon an
hour after the false one."

"But Captain Coke said he would see you and warn you of my visit."

"I can only assure you that he did not. Perhaps he thought it
unnecessary--meaning to be on deck himself."

"Must I wait here a whole hour, then?"

Hozier laughed. It was amusing to find how Coke's marked effort to
keep the girl and him apart had been defeated by a sailor's blunder.

"I hope the waiting will not weary you," he said. "It is a beautiful
night. You will not catch cold if you are well wrapped up, and, no
matter what you may think of the real Cross when you see it, you will
never have a better chance of star-gazing. Look at Sirius up there,
brighter than the moon; and Orion, too, incomparably grander than any
star in southern latitudes. Our dear old Bear of the north ranks far
beyond the Southern Cross in magnificence; but mist and smoke and dust
contrive to rob our home atmosphere of the clearness which adds such
luster to the firmament nearer the equator."

Under other circumstances, Iris would have reveled in just such an
opportunity of acquiring knowledge easily. Astronomy, despite its
limitations, is one of the exact sciences; it has the charm of
wonderland; it makes to awe-stricken humanity the mysterious appeal of
the infinite; but to-night, when the heart fluttered, and the soul
pined for sympathy, she was in a mood to regard with indifference the
instant extinction of the Milky Way.

"I am glad of the accident that brought me on deck somewhat earlier
than was necessary," she said. "You and I have not said much to each
other since you routed me out of the lazaretto, Mr. Hozier."

"Our friends at table are somewhat--difficult. If only you knew how I
regretted----"

"Oh, what of that? When I became a stowaway I fully expected to be
treated as one. I suppose, though, that you have often asked yourself
why I was guilty of such a mad trick?"

"Not exactly mad, Miss Yorke, but needless, since Captain Coke partly
expected to have your company."

"That is absurd. He had not the remotest notion----"

"Forgive me, but there you are wrong. He says that your u