d a
council of war, took the... empty bottles... into the lagoon, and buried
them.' He looked over his shoulder, back at the bright water. 'Well,
so you'll come to dinner, then? Shall we say half-past six. So good of
you!'

His voice, in uttering these conventional phrases, fell at once into
the false measure of society; and Herrick unconsciously followed the
example.

'I am sure we shall be very glad,' he said. 'At half-past six? Thank you
so very much.'

'"For my voice has been tuned to the note of the gun

That startles the deep when the combat's begun,"'

quoted Attwater, with a smile, which instantly gave way to an air
of funereal solemnity. 'I shall particularly expect Mr Whish,' he
continued. 'Mr Whish, I trust you understand the invitation?'

'I believe you, my boy!' replied the genial Huish.

'That is right then; and quite understood, is it not?' said Attwater.
'Mr Whish and Captain Brown at six-thirty without fault--and you, Hay,
at four sharp.'

And he called his boat.

During all this talk, a load of thought or anxiety had weighed upon the
captain. There was no part for which nature had so liberally endowed
him as that of the genial ship captain. But today he was silent and
abstracted. Those who knew him could see that he hearkened close to
every syllable, and seemed to ponder and try it in balances. It
would have been hard to say what look there was, cold, attentive, and
sinister, as of a man maturing plans, which still brooded over the
unconscious guest; it was here, it was there, it was nowhere; it was now
so little that Herrick chid himself for an idle fancy; and anon it was
so gross and palpable that you could say every hair on the man's head
talked mischief.

He woke up now, as with a start. 'You were talking of a charter,' said
he.

'Was I?' said Attwater. 'Well, let's talk of it no more at present.'

'Your own schooner is overdue, I understand?' continued the captain.

'You understand perfectly, Captain Brown,' said Attwater; 'thirty-three
days overdue at noon today.'

'She comes and goes, eh? plies between here and...?' hinted the captain.

'Exactly; every four months; three trips in the year,' said Attwater.

'You go in her, ever?' asked Davis.

'No, one stops here,' said Attwater, 'one has plenty to attend to.'

'Stop here, do you?' cried Davis. 'Say, how long?'

'How long, O Lord,' said Attwater with perfect, stern gravity. 'But it
does not seem so,' he added, w