sir?"

"Down there," said Mr Meldrum laconically, pointing to the open
hatchway.

"And why is he not at his post, looking after the welfare of his
passengers?" demanded the lady sternly, with the voice of a merciless
judge.

"Really I think you had better ask him," replied Mr Meldrum laughing;
"it strikes me he is now looking after the welfare of one of his
passengers, unexpected though the sable gentleman may be!"

What Mrs Major Negus might have rejoined to this, cannot unfortunately
be told, for at that moment, just as she had drawn herself up to her
full height of some five feet ten inches, or thereabouts, and appeared
prepared to demolish Mr Meldrum for his temerity in laughing at her--in
laughing at her, forsooth; the wife of the deputy assistant comptroller-
general of Waikatoo, New Zealand--the captain called out to him to bear
a hand to raise the wounded darkey from out of his self-selected prison.
Mr Adams, the second mate, turning out of his cabin at the same time
to take his watch, the two managed to raise "Snowball"--the captain and
the Irishman easing the burden by lifting him from below. As for the
grand Mrs Major Negus, she had to content herself with looking on with
an undisguised contempt at the whole proceeding, wondering all the while
that they should dare to introduce a negro into the saloon in that
manner without having first asked her permission!

Help generally comes when it is not specially wanted; so, by the time
the stowaway had been lifted and placed on a berth in one of the vacant
cabins, having his wounds, which were somewhat serious, seen to and
bound up, some others of the passengers appeared on the scene.

Notably amongst these was Mr Zachariah Lathrope, of Providence, Rhode
Island, an American gentleman of a particularly inquisitive nature, but
who, professing some knowledge of medical craft, was really of some use
in this instance, as there was no regular ship surgeon on board; and,
secondly, young Master Negus, a "born imp of mischief," whose
acquaintance will be further improved as the voyage proceeds; while,
Llewellyn, the steward, summoned courage at last to descend the
companion, in company with his wife the stewardess, who had been forward
to the cook's galley in search of some early tea for the lady
passengers. Seeing her husband on the poop she had brought him below,
being, as Mr McCarthy observed, "twice the man" that her presumptive
"lord and master" could possibly