the other
passengers had been withdrawn into a limited space of the deck, as if
through some authoritative orders, while she and her companion had been
evidently overlooked. A couple of sailors, who had suddenly taken their
positions by the quarter-boats, strengthened the accidental separation.

"Is there some one taking care of you?" he asked, half hesitatingly;
"Mr. Brace--Perkins--or"--

"No," she replied quickly. "Why?"

"Well, we are very near the boat in an emergency, and you might allow me
to stay here and see you safe in it."

"But the other ladies? Mrs. Markham, and"--

"They'll take their turn after YOU," he said grimly, picking up a wrap
from the railing and throwing it over her shoulders.

"But--I don't understand!" she stammered, more embarrassed by the
situation than by any impending peril.

"There is very little danger, I think," he added impatiently. "There is
scarcely any sea; the ship has very little way on; and these breakers
are not over rocks. Listen."

She tried to listen. At first she heard nothing but the occasional low
voice of command near the wheel. Then she became conscious of a gentle,
soothing murmur through the fog to the right. She had heard such a
murmuring accompaniment to her girlish dreams at Newport on a still
summer night. There was nothing to frighten her, but it increased her
embarrassment.

"And you?" she said awkwardly, raising her soft eyes.

"Oh, if you are all going off in the boats, by Jove, I think I'll stick
to the ship!" he returned, with a frankness that would have been rude
but for its utter abstraction.

Miss Keene was silent. The ship moved gently onward. The monotonous cry
of the leadsman in the chains was the only sound audible. The soundings
were indicating shoaler water, although the murmuring of the surf had
been left far astern. The almost imperceptible darkening of the mist
on either beam seemed to show that the Excelsior was entering some
land-locked passage. The movement of the vessel slackened, the tide was
beginning to ebb. Suddenly a wave of far-off clamor, faint but sonorous,
broke across the ship. There was an interval of breathless silence, and
then it broke again, and more distinctly. It was the sound of bells!

The thrill of awe which passed through passengers and crew at this
spiritual challenge from the vast and intangible void around them had
scarcely subsided when the captain turned to Senor Perkins with a look
of surly interrogati