monster was rising from the
sea. Jeb looked up just as the conning tower emerged with water rushing
off it like small Niagaras. Then, on a line of its submerged length, the
ocean seemed to heave, pressed upward by the long gray hull that now
broke through. It arose majestically, sleek as a bathing seal,
reflecting the westering sun like wet granite. Almost at once the
man-hatch in the conning tower opened, two sailors bobbed out and drew
respectfully aside as an officer climbed leisurely to deck. He stood
awhile twisting his mustache, gazing at the overturned boats with their
desperate crews; for the partially submerged box nearer by, and its
three human atoms, he had not yet noticed.

At sight of him the sergeant's temper flared.

"Look!" he cried. "Look, Jeb!--look, me darlin'!--see for wanst in yer
lives a murderin' sore dressed in the livery av a rotten master!" As the
officer turned in their direction Tim shook his fist at him, this time
becoming the incarnation of rage. "Turn yer ugly mug away!--turn it
away, I tell ye, from a sight too blessed for yer dirty eyes to see!--ye
cholera germ!--ye fester!--ye--ye----Oh, me darlin'," he wailed to the
little nurse, "if ye'd but go deaf a minute whilst I tell 'im what's in
me 'art!" And in disappointment he held his thumb to his nose, by this
most desperate sign trying to express the insults his tongue could not
utter.

Jeb was trembling.

"Don't make him mad, Tim," he implored. "He might kill us!"

"The dirty coward can only kill wan thing, an' thot's me body, but me
soul'll go on cussin' 'im till the ind av doom." He shook his fist
again, becoming more derisive: "Look at his head, now! If 'tain't the
shape av a rotten pear may I be shot for a spy!--mind ye how it slopes
up to a p'int, both fore-and-aft, and amidships; the fat-jowled swine!"

The man had been regarding them stolidly. He may not have understood
Tim's insults, but the gestures were unmistakable. Without taking away
his stare he spoke a brief command to one of the sailors who ducked
below, reappearing with a rifle.

Tim grew at once thoughtful, but Jeb, cowering lower, began to hurl
abuses at him. He had warned him, he cried; and now see what was going
to happen!

Without further ado the sailor took deliberate aim and fired; the little
nurse flinched, shuddered, and relaxed. Tim looked down at her with
widening, almost unbelieving, eyes; then raised his face to the sky and,
like a wounded animal,