g at me and begging me to listen.

'Edbury was drowned, Richie.'

'Overnight?'

'No, not overnight. I can tell it all in half-a-dozen words, if you'll be
quiet; and I know you're going to be as happy as I am, or I shouldn't
trifle an instant. He went overnight on board the barque Priscilla to see
Mabel Sweetwinter, the only woman he ever could have cared for, and he
went the voyage, just as we did. He was trapped, caged, and transported;
it's a repetition, except that the poor old Priscilla never came to land.
She foundered in a storm in the North Sea. That 's all we know. Every
soul perished, the captain and all. I knew how it would be with that crew
of his some day or other. Don't you remember my saying the Priscilla was
the kind of name of a vessel that would go down with all hands, and leave
a bottle to float to shore? A gin-bottle was found on our East coast-the
old captain must have discovered in the last few moments that such things
were on board--and in it there was a paper, and the passengers' and
crew's names in his handwriting, written as if he had been sitting in his
parlour at home; over them a line--"The Lord's will is about to be done";
and underneath--"We go to His judgement resigned and cheerful." You know
the old captain, Richie?

Temple had tears in his eyes. We both stood blinking for a second or two.

I could not but be curious to hear the reason for Edbury's having
determined to sail.

'Don't you understand how it was, Richie?' said Temple. 'Edbury went to
persuade her to stay, or just to see her for once, and he came to
persuasions. He seems to have been succeeding, but the captain stepped on
board and he treated Edbury as he did us two: he made him take the voyage
for discipline's sake and "his soul's health."'

'How do you know all this, Temple?'

'You know your friend Kiomi was one of the party. The captain sent her
back on shore because he had no room for her. She told us Edbury offered
bribes of hundreds and thousands for the captain to let him and Mabel go
off in the boat with Kiomi, and then he took to begging to go alone. He
tried to rouse the crew. The poor fellow cringed, she says; he threatened
to swim off. The captain locked him up.'

My immediate reflections hit on the Bible lessons Edbury must have had to
swallow, and the gaping of the waters when its truths were suddenly and
tremendously brought home to him.

An odd series of accidents! I thought.

Temple continued: 'He