hen, with Emmeline and her parcel in his arms or rather in one
arm, he clambered over the channel and passed her over the rail on to
the deck. Then it was Dick's turn, and the children stood waiting
whilst the old sailor brought the beaker of water, the biscuit, and the
tinned stuff on board.

It was a place to delight the heart of a boy, the deck of the
Shenandoah; forward right from the main hatchway it was laden with
timber. Running rigging lay loose on the deck in coils, and nearly the
whole of the quarter-deck was occupied by a deck-house. The place had a
delightful smell of sea-beach, decaying wood, tar, and mystery. Bights
of buntline and other ropes were dangling from above, only waiting to
be swung from. A bell was hung just forward of the foremast. In half a
moment Dick was forward hammering at the bell with a belaying pin he
had picked from the deck.

Mr Button shouted to him to desist; the sound of the bell jarred on his
nerves. It sounded like a summons, and a summons on that deserted craft
was quite out of place. Who knew what mightn't answer it in the way of
the supernatural?

Dick dropped the belaying pin and ran forward. He took the disengaged
hand, and the three went aft to the door of the deck-house. The door
was open, and they peeped in.

The place had three windows on the starboard side, and through the
windows the sun was shining in a mournful manner. There was a table in
the middle of the place. A seat was pushed away from the table as if
someone had risen in a hurry. On the table lay the remains of a meal, a
teapot, two teacups, two plates. On one of the plates rested a fork
with a bit of putrifying bacon upon it that some one had evidently been
conveying to his mouth when something had happened. Near the teapot
stood a tin of condensed milk, haggled open. Some old salt had just
been in the act of putting milk in his tea when the mysterious
something had occurred. Never did a lot of dead things speak so
eloquently as these things spoke.

One could conjure it all up. The skipper, most likely, had finished his
tea, and the mate was hard at work at his, when the leak had been
discovered, or some derelict had been run into, or whatever it was had
happened--happened.

One thing was evident, that since the abandonment of the brig she had
experienced fine weather, else the things would not have been left
standing so trimly on the table.

Mr Button and Dick entered the place to prosecute enquiri