nd face of caution and anxiety,
and coming along to me asked for some refreshments for himself and the
two natives. I called to the steward, who filled a tray, which the Major
with his own hands conveyed into his berth. Then, some time after two,
whilst I was at the gangway talking to a friend, the Major and the two
blacks came out of the cabin. Before they went over the side I said:--

"Is the work finished below, sir?"

"It is, and to my entire satisfaction," he answered.

When he was gone, my friend, who was the master of a barque, asked me
who that fine-looking man was. I answered he was a passenger, and then,
not understanding that the thing was a secret, plainly told him what
they had been doing in the cabin, and why.

"But," said he, "those two niggers'll know that something precious is to
be hidden in the place they've been making."

"That's been in my head all the morning," said I.

"Who's to hinder them," said he, "from blabbing to one or more of the
crew? Treachery's cheap in this country. A rupee will buy a pile of
roguery." He looked at me expressively. "Keep a bright look-out for a
brace of well-oiled stowaways," said he.

"It's the Major's business," I answered, with a shrug.

When Captain North came on board he and I went into the Major's berth.
We scrutinized every part, but saw nothing to indicate that a tool had
been used or a plank lifted. There was no sawdust, no chip of wood:
everything to the eye was precisely as before. No man will say we had
not a right to look: how were we to make sure, as captain and mate of
the ship for whose safety we were responsible, that those blacks under
the eye of the Major had not been doing something which might give us
trouble by-and-by?

"Well," said Captain North, as we stepped on deck, "if the diamond's
already hidden, which I doubt, it couldn't be more snugly concealed if
it were twenty fathoms deep in the mud here."

The Major's baggage came on board on the Saturday, and on the Monday we
sailed. We were twenty-four of a ship's company all told: twenty-five
souls in all, with Major Hood. Our second mate was a man named
Mackenzie, to whom and to the apprentices whilst we lay in the river I
had given particular instructions to keep a sharp look-out on all
strangers coming aboard. I had been very vigilant myself too, and
altogether was quite convinced there was no stowaway below, either white
or black, though under ordinary circumstances one never would