ronometer (pulling it out
as he spoke), and it never fails. As I always said to my missus,
`Maggie,' I used to say, `when you find this chronometer fail--' `Oh!
bother you an' your chronometer,' she would reply, takin' the wind out
o' my sails--for my missus has a free-an'-easy way o' doin' that--"

"You've just come off a voyage, young sir, if I mistake not," said
Crossley, turning to Red Shirt, for he had quite as free-and-easy a way
of taking the wind out of Captain Stride's sails as the "missus."

"Yes; I have just returned," answered Red Shirt, in a low soft voice,
which scarcely seemed appropriate to his colossal frame. His red
garment, by the way, was at the time all concealed by the pilot-coat,
excepting the collar.

"Going home for a spell, I suppose?" said Crossley.

"Yes."

"May I ask where you last hailed from?" said Captain Stride, with some
curiosity, for there was something in the appearance of this nautical
stranger which interested him.

"From the southern seas. I have been away a long while in a South Sea
whaler."

"Ah, indeed?--a rough service that."

"Rather rough; but I didn't enter it intentionally. I was picked up at
sea, with some of my mates, in an open boat, by the whaler. She was on
the outward voyage, and couldn't land us anywhere, so we were obliged to
make up our minds to join as hands."

"Strange!" murmured Captain Stride. "Then you were wrecked somewhere--
or your ship foundered, mayhap--eh?"

"Yes, we were wrecked--on a coral reef."

"Well now, young man, that is a strange coincidence. I was wrecked
myself on a coral reef in the very same seas, nigh three years ago.
Isn't that odd?"

"Dear me, this is very interesting," put in Mr Crossley; "and, as
Captain Stride says, a somewhat strange coincidence."

"_Is_ it so very strange, after all," returned Red Shirt, "seeing that
the Pacific is full of sunken coral reefs, and vessels are wrecked there
more or less every year?"

"Well, there's some truth in that," observed the Captain. "Did you say
it was a sunk reef your ship struck on?"

"Yes; quite sunk. No part visible. It was calm weather at the time,
and a clear night."

"Another coincidence!" exclaimed Stride, becoming still more interested.
"Calm and clear, too, when I was wrecked!"

"Curious," remarked Red Shirt in a cool indifferent tone, that began to
exasperate the Captain.

"Yet, after all, there are a good many calm and clear nights in the
Pacific,