t she might see him, and Tom gave gracious
permission when he thought his charge was asleep. Miss Dearsley was
leaning beside the cot. "Like to an angel bending o'er the dying who die
in righteousness, she stood," when she and Lennard met with a sudden
surprise. The wounded man opened his great dark eyes that showed like
deep shadows on the dead white of his skin; he saw that clear, exquisite
face with all the divine fulness of womanly tenderness shining sweetly
from the kind eyes, and he smiled--a very beautiful smile. He could
speak very low, and the awe-stricken girl murmured--

"Oh, hear him, Mr. Lennard, hear him!"

The man spoke in a slow monotone.

"Its all right, and I'm there arter all. I've swoor, and Ive drunk, and
yet arter all I'm forgiven. That's because I prayed at the very last
minute, an' He heerd me. The angel hasn't got no wings like what they
talked about, but that don't matter; I'm here, and safe, and I'll meet
the old woman when her time comes, and no error; but it ain't no thanks
to _me_."

Then the remarkable theologian drew a heavy sigh of gladness, and passed
into torpor again. Tom Lennard, in a stage whisper which was calculated
to soothe a sick man much as the firing of cannon might, said--

"Well, of all the what's-his-names, that beats every book that ever
was."

Tears were standing in the lady's sweet eyes, and there was something
hypocritical in the startling cough whereby Thomas endeavoured to pose
as a hard and seasoned old medical character.

Meanwhile Ferrier was slung on board the smack which hailed first, and
his education was continued with a vengeance.

"Down there, sir!"

Lewis got half way down when a rank waft of acrid and mephitic air met
him and half-choked him. He struggled on, and when he found his bearings
by the dim and misty light he sat down on a locker and gasped. The
atmosphere was heated to a cruel and almost dangerous pitch, and the
odour!--oh, Zola! if I dared! A groan from a darkened corner sounded
hollow, and Ferrier saw his new patient. The skipper came down and
said--

"There he is, sir. When our topmast broke away it ketches him right in
the leg, and we could do nothin'. He has suffered some, he has, sir, and
that's true."

Ferrier soon completed his examination, and he said--

"It's a mercy I'm well provided. This poor soul must have a constitution
like a horse."

An ugly fracture had been grinding for forty-eight hours, and not a
thing coul