carelessness, there was a
slight collision, and the poor bishop, who had been invalided to England
after typhoid, in order to undergo special treatment, suppressed an
exclamation of pain, although his fine dark eyes gleamed kindly upon me
through the pebbles of his gold-rimmed pince-nez.

Indeed, despite his Eastern blood, he might have posed for a Sadler
picture, his small and refined features seeming out of place above the
bulky body.

"Can you forgive my clumsiness," I began--

But the bishop raised his small, slim fingered hand of old ivory hue,
deprecatingly.

His system was supercharged with typhoid bacilli, and, as sometimes
occurs, the superfluous "bugs" had sought exit. He could only walk with
the aid of two stout sticks, and bent very much at that. His left leg
had been surgically scraped to the bone, and I appreciated the exquisite
torture to which my awkwardness had subjected him. But he would
entertain no apologies, pressing his inquiry respecting Karamaneh in the
kindly manner which had made him so deservedly popular on board.

"Many thanks for your solicitude," I said; "I have promised her sound
repose to-night, and since my professional reputation is at stake, I
shall see that she secures it."

In short, we were in pleasant company, and the day passed happily enough
and without notable event. Smith spent some considerable time with the
chief officer, wandering about unfrequented parts of the ship. I learned
later that he had explored the lascars' quarters, the forecastle, the
engine-room, and had even descended to the stokehold; but this was done
so unostentatiously that it occasioned no comment.

With the approach of evening, in place of that physical contentment
which usually heralds the dinner-hour, at sea, I experienced a fit of
the seemingly causeless apprehension which too often in the past had
harbingered the coming of grim events; which I had learnt to associate
with the nearing presence of one of Fu-Manchu's death-agents. In view of
the facts, as I afterwards knew them to be, I cannot account for this.

Yet, in an unexpected manner, my forebodings were realized. That night I
was destined to meet a sorrow surpassing any which my troubled life had
known. Even now I experience great difficulty in relating the matters
which befell, in speaking of the sense of irrevocable loss which came to
me. Briefly, then, at about ten minutes before the dining hour, whilst
all the passengers, myself incl