softened
by the little man's distress, and he had come away with a generous
trouble in his heart.

"I shan't sleep a wink to-night," he decided; and went on
inconsequently, "After all, a girl is less anxiety than a boy.
People don't find it worth their while to kidnap a girl and flog her
with a cat-o'-nine-tails. A turn of a die, and I'd have been in
Jack's shoes to-night; while, as it is--"

As it was, however, he seemed hardly to enjoy his good fortune, for
he added, still looking up:

"Plague seize it! I shan't sleep a wink--I know I shan't. What a
magnificent show of stars! Let me see, how long is it before
daybreak? One-two-three-five hours only. I won't go to bed at all--
I'll have a turn at the telescope."

He stole into the house softly and climbed up the spiral staircase.
A faint light shone out on the first landing from the half-open door
of his workroom. He entered and turned up the lamp.

Its light revealed a scene of amazing disorder. The walls were
covered with books and charts; the floor was littered with
manuscripts, mathematical instruments, huge folios, piled
higgledy-piggledy, carpenter's tools, retorts, bottles of chemicals.
In one corner, beside a door leading to his bedroom, stood a
turning-lathe three inches deep in sawdust and shavings; in another,
a human skeleton hung against the wall, its feet concealed by the
model of a pumping-engine. Hard by was nailed a rack containing a
couple of antique swords, a walking-cane and a large telescope.

Captain Runacles took down this telescope and tucked it under his
arm. Then, unhitching a dressing-gown of faded purple from a peg
behind the door, he turned the lamp low again and stepped out upon
the landing. Here he paused for a minute and listened. The house
was still. From the floor below ascended the sound of breathing,
regular and stertorous, which proved that Simeon was asleep.

He put his hand on the stair-rail and ascended to the next floor,
passing his daughter's room on tiptoe. Above this, a flight of steps
that was little more than a ladder led up into the obscurity of the
attics. He climbed these steps, and, entering a lumber-room, where
he had to duck his head to avoid striking the sloping roof, felt his
way to a shuttered window, with the bolt of which he fumbled for a
moment. When at length he drew the shutter open, a whiff of cold air
streamed into the room and a parallelogram of purple sky was visible,
studded with