he happens to be hungry, and hopes that
the cook will heave overboard enough scraps to take the sharp edge off
his appetite. But the dew is falling very heavily, Miss Trevor; had not
you better fetch up a wrap?"

"No, thanks," answered the girl, as she moved away and extended her hand
for him to help her down off the grating on to the deck; "it is growing
late, so I will bid you good night and go to my cabin."

"Sorry to hear that Mr Purchas is bad, sir," observed Tom, tentatively,
when Miss Trevor had vanished down the companion ladder. "Hope it ain't
nothin' serious?"

"Oh dear, no," answered Leslie, perceiving with annoyance that the man
was connecting the presence of the shark under the counter with
Purchas's invisibility; "merely a rather sharp bilious attack, which is
now over, I am glad to say. He will probably be on deck again
to-morrow."

Then, as the carpenter--who had been keeping out of the way during Miss
Trevor's presence on deck--came aft, Leslie gave over the charge of the
brig to him, and turned in.

The remainder of the first watch, and the whole of the middle watch,
passed without incident save that, when Leslie went on deck at midnight,
he found that the wind had softened down somewhat--as was indeed to be
expected, with the brig drawing so near to the equator--the vessel's
speed having dropped to about four knots. But the weather held superbly
fine, and the barometer remained absolutely steady; Leslie therefore
retired to his bunk at the end of the middle watch with a perfectly easy
mind, and the fixed determination to have Purchas on deck and under the
head pump at seven bells, when he himself would be called.

It was still quite dark when he was startled out of a profound sleep by
a sudden loud outcry on deck, followed by a rushing and scuffling of
feet overhead accompanied by the flapping of canvas, as though the brig
had been suddenly luffed into the wind.

Leslie was well acquainted with the vagaries of equatorial weather, and
therefore, under the apprehension that a squall was threatening, he
sprang from his berth and dashed up on deck without waiting to exchange
his pyjamas for other clothing. As he emerged from the companion he
came into violent contact with some one who was evidently about to make
a hasty descent of the ladder; and when the pair had recovered from the
shock, he discovered that he had collided with the carpenter, who
betrayed every symptom of the most violent ag