ad. "It's a mysterious thing," he said
slowly; "a man who'd been at sea all his life to go and tumble overboard
in calm weather like that."

"There's a lot that's mysterious about it, sir," said Joe, who had drawn
near, followed by the others. "I can say that, because I was on deck
only a few minutes before it happened."

"Pity you didn't stay up," said Captain Barber, ruefully.

"So I thought, sir," said Joe, "but the mate saw me on deck and made me
go below. Two minutes afterwards I heard a splash, and the skipper was
overboard."

There was a meaning in his words that there was no mistaking. The old
man, looking round at the faces, saw that the mate's was very pale.

"What did he make you go below for?" he asked, turning to Joe.

"Better ask him, sir," replied the seaman. "I wanted to stay up on deck,
but I 'ad to obey orders. If I 'ad stayed on deck, he wouldn't have been
cap'n."

Captain Barber turned and regarded the mate fixedly; the mate, after a
vain attempt to meet his gaze, lowered his eyes to the deck.

"What do you say to all this?" enquired Barber, slowly.

"Nothing," replied the mate. "I did send Joe below and the skipper fell
overboard a minute or two afterwards. It's quite true."

"Fell?" enquired Captain Barber.

"Fell," repeated the other, and looked him squarely in the eyes.

For some time Captain Barber said nothing, and the men, finding the
silence irksome, shuffled uneasily.

"Fred saved your life once," said Barber, at length.

"He did," replied Fraser.

The old man turned and paced slowly up and down the deck.

"He was my sister's boy," he said, halting in front of the mate, "but he
was more like my son. His father and mother were drownded too, but they
went down fair and square in a gale. He stuck by his ship, and she stuck
by him, God bless her."

Fraser nodded.

"I'm obliged to you for bringing my ship from London," said Barber,
slowly. "I sha'n't want you to take 'er back. I sha'n't want you to stay
in 'er at all. I don't want to see you again."

"That's as you please," said Fraser, trying to speak unconcernedly.
"It's your ship, and it's for you to do as you like about her. I'll put
my things together now."

"You don't ask for no reason?" asked Barber, eyeing him wistfully.

The other shook his head. "No," he said, simply, and went below.

He came up some little time later with his belongings in a couple of
chests, and, the men offering no assistance, put them asho