of the snake in her long, low, graceful
lines, and evidently built for speed as well as comfort. The heavy gilt
lettering on her stern proclaimed to all and sundry that she was called
the _Cobra_.

The gang plank was down, and Nugent stepped lightly across it on to the
main deck, where his further progress was promptly barred by a
bullet-headed ship's officer in a smart blue suit and a brass-banded
cap.

"Here! you don't own the bally vessel," said this individual rudely.
"Not quite so fast, if you please. What's your business?"

"I am a friend of Captain Brant's; if he is on board and if you will
kindly have my card taken to him I have no doubt that he will see me,"
replied Nugent with his usual suave politeness.

The officer called a seaman, and, having dispatched him with the card,
became roughly apologetic. "That's a horse of another colour," he
growled. "Strict orders against strangers on this ship. Couldn't let you
on if you were the skipper's own brother, and the skipper's the devil."

"My dear sir, I congratulate you on your discretion," rejoined Nugent
affably. "I don't mind telling you that if you had let me on without
orders you wouldn't have enjoyed your billet another hour. As it is, you
will be like the nice little boy in the Sunday school who had a good
mark put against his name."

The bullet-headed mate spat thoughtfully over the bulwarks, and then, as
he realized the position, broke into an evil grin.

"I see," he chuckled. "You're the power behind the throne, eh? I guess
if I'd known that I'd have given you a bit of stronger lip. What the
blooming game is I don't want to know, but I can see it's going to be a
funny sort of cruise."

The bluejacket, whose brutal features, Nugent observed with cynical
satisfaction, were at curious variance with his trim, yacht-like
attire, returned, and said that Captain Brant would receive the visitor
at once. Nugent followed his conductor to a cabin under the bridge, the
occupant of which, a little wisp of a man with an elongated, pear-shaped
cranium, prominent teeth, and a yellow complexion, advanced with a
strange, hopping gait to greet his guest.

"Ah!" he said with an uncanny hissing intake of breath, "I am charmed to
see you, Mr. Nugent. The honour of your visit means that we are to get a
move on us at last, I hope?"

"It points that way," replied Nugent guardedly as he took the seat
offered him. "Your anxiety to be off means that you are having troubl