deck-chair beside Laurence. He was the latter's cabin chum, and the two
had become rather friendly.

"Nothing to do and plenty of time to do it in," he went on, stretching
himself and yawning. "I'm jolly sick of this voyage already."

"And we're scarcely half through with it? It's a fact, Holmes, but I'm
not sick of it a bit."

"Eh?" and the other stared. "That's odd, Stanninghame. You, I should
have thought, if anyone, would be just dog-gone tired of it by now. Why,
you never even cut into any of the fun that's going--such as it is."

"You may well put that in, Holmes. As, for instance--listen!"

For the whanging of the piano in the saloon beneath had attained to an
even greater pitch of discord than was normally the case. To it was
added the excruciating rasp of a fiddle.

"Heavens! Are they immolating a stowaway cat down there?" murmured
Laurence, with a little shudder. "It would have been more humane to have
put the misguided brute to a painless end."

Holmes spluttered.

"It reminds me," he said, "of one voyage I made by this line. Some of
the passengers got up what they called an 'Amusement Committee.'"

"A fearful and wonderful monster!"

"Just so. It's mission was to worry the soul out of each and all of us,
in search of some nefarious gift. Oh, and we mustered plenty, from the
'cello to the 'bones.' Well, what is going on down there now is sheer
delight in comparison. Imagine the present performance heaped up--only
relieved by caterwauls of about equal quality--and that from 6 A. M.
until 'lights out.'"

"I don't want to imagine it, thank you, Holmes; so spare what little of
that faculty I still retain. But, say now, when was this eventful
voyage?"

"In the summer of '84."

"Precisely. I remember now. It was in the newspapers at the time that in
more than one ship's log were entered strange reports of gruesome and
wholly indefinable noises heard at night in certain latitudes. Some of
the crews mutinied, and there was an instance on record of more than one
hand, bursting with superstition, going mad and jumping overboard. So,
you see, Holmes, your 'Amusement Committee' doubly deserved hanging."

The delicious readiness of this "lie" so fetched Holmes that he opened
his head and emitted a howl of laughter. He made such a row, in fact,
that neither of them heard the convulsively half-repressed splutter
which burst forth somewhere behind them.

"Well, you were going to explain how it is you haven