ther in expense of strength. Dinner was served on
deck, the officers messing aft under the slack of the spanker, the men
fraternising forward. Trent appeared in excellent spirits, served out
grog to all hands, opened a bottle of Cape wine for the after-table, and
obliged his guests with many details of the life of a financier in
Cardiff. He had been forty years at sea, had five times suffered
shipwreck, was once nine months the prisoner of a pepper rajah, and had
seen service under fire in Chinese rivers; but the only thing he cared
to talk of, the only thing of which he was vain, or with which he
thought it possible to interest a stranger, was his career as a
money-lender in the slums of a seaport town.

The afternoon spell told cruelly on the Currency Lasses. Already
exhausted as they were with sleeplessness and excitement, they did the
last hours of this violent employment on bare nerves; and, when Trent
was at last satisfied with the condition of his rigging, expected
eagerly the word to put to sea. But the captain seemed in no hurry. He
went and walked by himself softly, like a man in thought. Presently he
hailed Wicks.

"You're a kind of company, ain't you, Captain Kirkup?" he inquired.

"Yes, we're all on board on lays," was the reply.

"Well, then, you won't mind if I ask the lot of you down to tea in the
cabin?" asked Trent.

Wicks was amazed, but he naturally ventured no remark; and a little
after, the six Currency Lasses sat down with Trent and Goddedaal to a
spread of marmalade, butter, toast, sardines, tinned tongue, and
steaming tea. The food was not very good, and I have no doubt Nares
would have reviled it, but it was manna to the castaways. Goddedaal
waited on them with a kindness far before courtesy, a kindness like that
of some old, honest countrywoman in her farm. It was remembered
afterwards that Trent took little share in these attentions, but sat
much absorbed in thought, and seemed to remember and forget the presence
of his guests alternately.

Presently he addressed the Chinaman.

"Clear out," said he, and watched him till he had disappeared in the
stair.--"Now, gentlemen," he went on, "I understand you're a joint-stock
sort of crew, and that's why I've had you all down; for there's a point
I want made clear. You see what sort of a ship this is--a good ship,
though I say it, and you see what the rations are--good enough for
sailor-men."

There was a hurried murmur of approval, but curi