's little finger than in all the world
else--in composition, I mean," he added.

"That has always been my opinion," I ventured at last.

He turned his dull blue eyes on me, as if wondering what I did there.
"So!" he said, and heaved a bigger sigh from his very heart, as it
seemed. "When the attack is made, doctor----" he broke off, and asked
sharply, "When will they attack, do you say?"

"Any moment now, sir," I replied.

He rose. "We must remember the ladies, doctor," he said.

"Yes, we are not likely to forget them," I replied. He eyed me. "Do you
think----?" and paused.

"That is all, sir," he said with a curt nod.

It was not a ceremonious or even a fitting dismissal seeing the common
peril in which we stood. In that danger surely we should have drifted
together more--drifted into a situation where princes and commoners
were not, where employers and hirelings did not exist. Yet I was not
annoyed, for I had seen some way into his soul, and it was turbid and
tortured. Black care had settled on Prince Frederic, and he looked on
me out of eyes of gloom. The iron had entered into him, and he was no
longer a Prince, but a mortal man undergoing travail and anguish.

By the afternoon we were clear of the Straits, and the nose of the
yacht turned northward. Still there was no sign from the mutineers, and
that being so, I felt myself at liberty to pay my accustomed visit to
Legrand in the forecastle. No one interfered with me, and I did not see
Holgate; but the man on guard at the hatch made no difficulty about
letting me down. As I descended it came into my mind how easy it would
be to dispose of yet another fighting man of the meagre force at the
Prince's disposal by clapping the hatch over my head. It would have
been a grim joke quite in keeping with Holgate's character, and for a
moment I turned as in doubt; but the next second, banishing my
misgivings, I went down to the floor. Captivity was telling on the
prisoners beyond doubt, for here they got no sight of sun, and the
light was that of the gloaming. I remembered that I had forgotten to
take a lantern from the sentry as soon as this twilight gloomed on me,
and I was turning back when I heard a sound.

"Hsst--hsst!----"

I stopped. "Who is that?" I asked in a whisper.

"It's me, Jones, sir," said one of the hands.

I walked towards him, for the light that streamed in by the open
hatchway sufficed to reveal him.

"Anything wrong with you?" said I casuall