man on board could have
exceeded; and I doubt if very many could have equalled it. He went up
the poop-ladder three steps at a time and disappeared in the direction of
the wheel behind the chart-house.

Next came a promptitude of bellowed orders, and all the watch was
slacking away after braces to starboard and pulling on after braces to
port. I had already learned the manoeuvre. Mr. Pike was wearing ship.

As I returned aft along the bridge Mr. Mellaire and the carpenter emerged
from the cabin door. They had been interrupted at breakfast, for they
were wiping their mouths. Mr. Pike came to the break of the poop, called
down instructions to the second mate, who proceeded for'ard, and ordered
the carpenter to take the wheel.

As the _Elsinore_ swung around on her heel Mr. Pike put her on the back
track so as to cover the water she had just crossed over. He lowered the
glasses through which he was scanning the sea and pointed down the
hatchway that opened into the big after-room beneath. The ladder was
gone.

"Must have taken the lazarette ladder with him," said Mr. Pike.

Captain West strolled out of the chart-room. He said good morning in his
customary way, courteously to me and formally to the mate, and strolled
on along the poop to the wheel, where he paused to glance into the
binnacle. Turning, he went on leisurely to the break of the poop. Again
he came back to us. Fully two minutes must have elapsed ere he spoke.

"What is the matter, Mr. Pike? Man overboard?"

"Yes, sir," was the answer.

"And took the lazarette ladder along with him?" Captain West queried.

"Yes, sir. It's the Greek that jumped over at Baltimore."

Evidently the affair was not serious enough for Captain West to be the
Samurai. He lighted a cigar and resumed his stroll. And yet he had
missed nothing, not even the absence of the ladder.

Mr. Pike sent look-outs aloft to every skysail-yard, and the _Elsinore_
slipped along through the smooth sea. Miss West came up and stood beside
me, searching the ocean with her eyes while I told her the little I knew.
She evidenced no excitement, and reassured me by telling me how difficult
it was to lose a man of Tony's suicidal type.

"Their madness always seems to come upon them in fine weather or under
safe circumstances," she smiled, "when a boat can be lowered or a tug is
alongside. And sometimes they take life--preservers with them, as in
this case."

At the end of an hour M