f Cramond-on-Almond. Mr. Sheepshanks meanwhile shook hands
with me impressively. "It has been a memorable experience, sir. I shall
have much to tell my wife on my return."

It occurred to me as probable that the lady would have even more to say
to him. He stepped into the cutter, and, as they pushed off, was
hilariously bonneted by Mr. Dalmahoy, by way of parting salute.
"Starboard after-braces!" Captain Colenso called to his crew. The yards
were trimmed and the _Lady Nepean_ slowly gathered way, while I stood by
the bulwarks gazing after my friends and attempting to persuade myself
that the fresh air was doing me good.

Captain Colenso perceived my queasiness, and advised me to seek my berth
and lie down; and on my replying with haggard defiance, took my arm
gently, as if I had been a wilful child, and led me below. I passed
beyond one of the mahogany doors leading from the main cabin; and in
that seclusion I ask you to leave me face to face with the next
forty-eight hours. It was a dreadful time.

Nor at the end of it did gaiety wait on a partially recovered appetite.
The ladies of the ship nursed me, and tickled my palate with the
lightest of sea diet. The men strowed seats for me on deck, and touched
their caps with respectful sympathy. One and all were indefatigably
kind, but taciturn to a degree beyond belief. A fog of mystery hung and
deepened about them and the _Lady Nepean_, and I crept about the deck in
a continuous evil dream, entangling myself in impossible theories. To
begin with, there were eight women on board: a number not to be
reconciled with serious privateering; all daughters or sons' wives or
granddaughters of Captain Colenso. Of the men--twenty-three in
all--those who were not called Colenso were called Pengelly; and most of
them convicted landsmen by their bilious countenances and unhandy
movements; men fresh from the plough-tail by their gait, yet with no
ruddy impress of field-work and the open air.

Twice every day, and thrice on Sundays, this extraordinary company
gathered bare-headed to the poop for a religious service which it would
be colourless to call frantic. It began decorously enough with a
quavering exposition of some portion of Holy Writ by Captain Colenso.
But by and by (and especially at the evening office) his listeners
kindled and opened on him with a skirmishing fire of "Amens." Then,
worked by degrees to an ecstasy, they broke into cries of thanksgiving
and mutual encourage