upon the ship; the silence was as refreshing as a fold of
coolness lifting off the sea. A spun-yarn winch was clinking on the
forecastle; from alongside rose the music of fretted waters.

I was talking to the captain on some detail of the ship's furniture;
when Major Hood came running up the companion steps, his face as white
as his waistcoat, his head uncovered, every muscle of his countenance
rigid, as with horror.

"Good God, captain!" cried he, standing in the companion, "what do you
think has happened?" Before we could fetch a breath he cried: "Someone's
stolen the diamond!"

I glanced at the helmsman who stood at the radiant circle of wheel
staring with open mouth and eyebrows arched into his hair. The captain,
stepping close to Major Hood, said in a low, steady voice:--

"What's this you tell me, sir?"

"The diamond's gone!" exclaimed the Major, fixing his shining eyes upon
me, whilst I observed that his fingers convulsively stroked his thumbs
as though he were rolling up pellets of bread or paper.

"Do you tell me the diamond's been taken from the place you hid it in?"
said Captain North, still speaking softly, but with deliberation.

"The diamond never was hidden," replied the Major, who continued to
stare at me. "It was in a portmanteau. _That's_ no hiding-place!"

Captain North fell back a step. "Never was hidden!" he exclaimed.
"Didn't you bring two native workmen aboard for no other purpose than to
hide it?"

"It never was hidden," said the Major, now turning his eyes upon the
captain. "I chose it should be believed it was undiscoverably concealed
in some part of my cabin, that I might safely and conveniently keep it
in my baggage, where no thief would dream of looking for it. Who has
it?" he cried with a sudden fierceness, making a step full of passion
out of the companion-way; and he looked under knitted brows towards the
ship's forecastle.

Captain North watched him idly for a moment or two, and then with an
abrupt swing of his whole figure, eloquent of defiant resolution, he
stared the Major in the face, and said in a quiet, level voice:--

"I shan't be able to help you. If it's gone, it's gone. A diamond's not
a bale of wool. Whoever's been clever enough to find it will know how
to keep it."

[Illustration: "SOMEONE'S STOLEN THE DIAMOND!"]

"I must have it!" broke out the Major. "It's a gift for Her Majesty the
Queen. It's in this ship. I look to you, sir, as master of this vessel,
to r