he might be, since he devoted himself to the
captain's wife and daughter, who were the only passengers on board.

'So shall I, even if I have to wear a pair of shoes like Chinese junks.
I've tramped up and down the deck so much, I shall be barefooted if
we don't arrive soon,' laughed Mary, the daughter, showing two shabby
little boots as she glanced up at the companion of these tramps,
remembering gratefully how pleasant he had made them.

'Don't think there are any small enough in China,' answered Emil, with a
sailor's ready gallantry, privately resolving to hunt up the handsomest
shoes he could find the moment he landed.

'I don't know what you would have done for exercise, dear, if Mr
Hoffmann had not made you walk every day. This lazy life is bad for
young people, though it suits an old body like me well enough in calm
weather. Is this likely to be a gale, think ye?' added Mrs Hardy, with
an anxious glance at the west, where the sun was setting redly.

'Only a capful of wind, ma'am, just enough to send us along lively,'
answered Emil, with a comprehensive glance aloft and alow.

'Please sing, Mr Hoffmann, it's so pleasant to have music at this
time. We shall miss it very much when we get ashore,' said Mary, in
a persuasive tone which would have won melody from a shark, if such a
thing were possible.

Emil had often blessed his one accomplishment during these months, for
it cheered the long days, and made the twilight hour his happiest
time, wind and weather permitting. So now he gladly tuned his pipe, and
leaning on the taffrail near the girl, watched the brown locks blowing
in the wind as he sang her favourite song:

'Give me freshening breeze, my boys,
A white and swelling sail,
A ship that cuts the dashing waves,
And weathers every gale.
What life is like a sailor's life,
So free, so bold, so brave?
His home the ocean's wide expanse,
A coral bed his grave.'

Just as the last notes of the clear, strong voice died away, Mrs Hardy
suddenly exclaimed: 'What's that?' Emil's quick eye saw at once the
little puff of smoke coming up a hatchway where no smoke should be, and
his heart seemed to stand still for an instant as the dread word 'Fire!'
flashed through his mind. Then he was quite steady, and strolled away
saying quietly:

'Smoking not allowed there, I'll go and stop it.' But the instant he
was out of sight his face changed, and he leaped down the hatchway,
thin