r reminded
me that I had seen a small copper pump in the steward's pantry, so I
returned there to get it. Then, with it in one hand, and a lantern in
the other, I searched about on deck until I had found the small screw
plug that fitted into the tank pipe; and presently I had at my disposal
a bucket of sweet fresh water, which I poured into the coppers. I then
lighted the galley fire--finding plenty of coal for my immediate wants
in the locker--and proceeded to prepare a couple of tins of the
preserved soup that I had found in the pantry. Then, while this was
cooking, I returned to the cabin to lay the table, but found that Miss
Onslow had forestalled me, having cleared away the wreck off the
starboard locker, restored the tablecloth to its proper position, and
rearranged such portions of the table equipage as had not been smashed
in the capsizal. The poor girl looked dreadfully white and thin and
weary, but I noticed that during my absence she had found time to take
off her hat and to roughly rearrange her hair! Her eyes looked red, as
though she had been crying; so, with the view of toning her up a little,
I went to work rummaging in the sofa-lockers, and presently found a few
bottles of port wine, the neck of one of which I promptly knocked off,
and insisted upon her taking a glass there and then. She obeyed me with
a sweet submissiveness that was in extraordinary contrast with her
demeanour aboard the _City of Cawnpore_; but a flash of her old spirit
returned when she had swallowed the wine, as, handing me the glass, she
said:

"There! I have done as you bade me. And now I _insist_ upon your
taking some also; for you look positively ghastly, and so ill that,
unless you take great care of yourself, you will break down altogether!"

I took the wine, and then hurried away back to the galley, where I
remained until the soup was ready. Of this we made a moderate meal, and
then, without attempting to clear the table, I gently conducted my
companion to the skipper's stateroom, closed the door upon her, and
flung myself, just as I was, upon the sofa-lockers of the main cabin,
where I instantly fell into a sleep that was absolute oblivion.

I was awakened next morning by a beam of brilliant sunshine flashing
intermittently athwart my closed eyelids to the lazy roll of the ship,
and, springing to my feet and peering out through the nearest port, I
saw that the wind had died away to a flat calm, and that the water w