y of the ice-room was
missing, and this led to the man's discovery. If he had not been found
till the following day, he would probably have been the first man to be
frozen to death in one of the hottest parts of the world.

THE BOY TRAMP.

(_Continued from page 183._)

CHAPTER XXI.

With the return of Captain Knowlton the story seems to come to its
natural end; but, although he had heard from Mr. Westlake all about my
own adventures, there still remained, of course, a great deal to
discuss.

When he was presented to Mrs. Westlake, she insisted that we should both
dine in Grosvenor Gardens, and as it was difficult to refuse anything to
one who had shown me such kindness, Captain Knowlton apologised for his
travelling clothes and consented. Presently, when we were all sitting
down together, Mrs. Westlake begged for Captain Knowlton's story. He
leaned back in his arm-chair, beginning in an easy, conversational tone,
as if he were telling us about a walk from one part of London to
another.

'It was April when I left the Solent in the _Seagull_,' he said, 'making
for Gibraltar, where I picked up two or three men of my old regiment,
and cruised for a week or two in the Mediterranean. Early in May I
sailed for Madeira, touched at the Canaries, then steamed south, crossed
the line, and in due course reached Capetown. There the man who was to
have accompanied me for the whole trip found a telegram to the effect
that his father lay seriously ill in Vienna, so that I had to continue
the voyage without him. A few days out from Capetown we got into very
bad weather, which grew worse and worse until, in the middle of the
roughest night I ever experienced, we were run down by a huge liner,
which brutally went on her way, leaving us to our fate. The skipper
wanted to be the last to leave the _Seagull_, but I sent him off with
seven or eight of the crew, and, before the rest could get away, the
ship went down under us. I found myself in the water, one moment lifted
high on the crest of an enormous wave, the next sunk in the trough. I
gave myself up for lost, when something was washed against my arm, and
seizing it, to my great good fortune, I found that it was one of our
life-rafts, which had served as a seat on the _Seagull's_ deck.

'The night was the blackest you can imagine; from the moment the ship
foundered I saw nothing either of the boat's crew or of the men who had
been left with me. For what seemed an endless