r Kemp safe?" he asked anxiously.

"All right--only stunned, I think. That's him they're just goin' to
carry below. Put 'im in my bunk, Mr Moor."

"Ay ay, sir."

Nigel sprang up. "Stay, father," he said in a low voice. "_She_ must
not see him for the first time like this."

"All right, boy. I understand. You leave that to me. My bunk has bin
shifted for'id--more amidships--an' Kathy's well aft. They shan't be
let run foul of each other. You go an' rest on the main hatch till we
get him down. Why, here's a nigger! Where did you pick him? oh! I
remember. You're the man we met, I suppose, wi' the hermit on Krakatoa
that day o' the excursion from Batavia."

"Yes, das me. But we'll meet on Krakatoa no more, for dat place am
blown to bits."

"I'm pretty well convinced o' that by this time, my man. Not hurt much,
I hope?"

"No, sar--not more 'n I can stan'. But I's 'fraid dat poor Spinkie's
a'most used up--hallo! what you gwine to do with massa?" demanded the
negro, whose wandering faculties had only in part returned.

"He's gone below. All right. Now, you go and lie down beside my son on
the hatch. I'll--see to Van der Kemp."

But Captain David Roy's intentions, like those of many men of greater
note, were frustrated by the hermit himself, who recovered consciousness
just as the four men who carried him reached the foot of the
companion-ladder close to the cabin door. Owing to the deeper than
midnight darkness that prevailed a lamp was burning in the cabin--dimly,
as if, infected by the universal chaos, it were unwilling to enlighten
the surrounding gloom.

On recovering consciousness Van der Kemp was, not unnaturally, under the
impression that he had fallen into the hands of foes. With one
effectual convulsion of his powerful limbs he scattered his bearers
right and left, and turning--like all honest men--to the light, he
sprang into the cabin, wrenched a chair from its fastenings, and, facing
round, stood at bay.

Kathleen, seeing this blood-stained giant in such violent action,
naturally fled to her cabin and shut the door.

As no worse enemy than Captain Roy presented himself at the cabin door,
unarmed, and with an anxious look on his rugged face, the hermit set
down the chair, and feeling giddy sank down on it with a groan.

"I fear you are badly hurt, sir. Let me tie a handkerchief round your
wounded head," said the captain soothingly.

"Thanks, thanks. Your voice is not unfamili