kable chandler had
mentioned as the time of his death. "Thirteen minutes past one," he
distinctly heard Rasmussen's voice saying, "thirteen minutes past one, on
the twenty-fourth of January."

The _Roland_ was tossing slightly again, and the great siren was
bellowing. Its repeated thunderous cries, which indicated fog, the
lurching of the vessel, the sign, perhaps, of fresh storms and hardships
to be gone through, vexed and fretted Frederick. From the adventurous
doings in his brain, he was transported to the no less adventurous doings
in reality. Awakening from his dreams, he found himself locked into a
narrow cabin, plowing through the high seas, on a vessel heavily
freighted with the fearful dreams of many souls, and yet not sinking
from the load of that cargo.

Frederick was already on deck before half past five. The fog had lifted,
and from over the edge of a leaden sea of moderate-sized waves rose the
dawn of a gloomy morning. The deck was empty, producing the impression of
dreary loneliness. The passengers were all lying in their berths. None of
the crew even were visible. It looked as if the mighty ship were pursuing
its course wholly without human agency.

XXXV

Frederick was standing near the log-line, which dragged in the broad,
churning wake. Even in the ghostly dawn, hungry gulls were following the
ship, sometimes flying near, sometimes dropping back, ever and anon
swooping down into the foamy wake with a mournful cry, as of condemned
souls. This was no vision, and yet Frederick scarcely distinguished it
from a dream. With his nerves unstrung, with his being still penetrated
by the marvels of his sleeping life, which remained partially present to
him, the strange heaving waste of the ocean seemed no less miraculous
than his dreams. Thus the ocean had been tossing its mountains of waves
beneath the blind eyes of millions of years, itself no less blind than
those eons. Thus and not otherwise had it been since the first day of
creation: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the
earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the
deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

Frederick shivered. Had he ever lived with anything else than a spirit
and spirits, that is, with ghosts? And at this moment was he not farther
removed than ever from what is considered immovable solid ground, from
what is called reality? In his state of mind, did he