was a good half-mile further astern since her plunge into
the bowels of the _Cobra_. Her second anxiety was about Brant, and she
was comforted to see that he was not on the bridge. As a matter of fact
he had gone to his cabin for breakfast, tiring of a joke which had lost
its zest with Nettle's disappearance from the deck.

The glass dome over the engine-room was amidships, abaft the funnel.
Thither she strolled with seeming carelessness, passing on forward
without stopping, but satisfying herself as she did so that the
ventilating slide was open. She walked nearly to the bows, and then, on
turning to come back, struck a gold mine in the way of good fortune,
though it took the humble shape of a zinc bucket full of cinders. It had
been placed by the cook outside the door of the caboose, ready to be
thrown overboard by one of the sailors--a duty which had been neglected
in the excitement of the chase by the _Snipe_.

Miss Jimpson looked slyly round. With the exception of the look-out man
in the bows the crew were all aft, watching the outpaced war vessel and
exchanging ribald jests at the expense of her commander. But between the
cook-house and the superstructure in which were the saloon and the
state-rooms was an open stretch of deck in clear view of the bridge. And
on the bridge Bully Cheeseman was stalking to and fro, in charge of the
ship.

To reach her objective, the skylight over the engine-room, she would
have to traverse the open space as far as the deck-house, when the
latter would furnish some sort of cover; but the real danger would be
after she had passed under the bridge into the after-part of the vessel.
The eyes of the mate, who was watching the destroyer, were naturally
turned in that direction. The only compensation was that the skylight
was close to the bridge, and that she would not be long in the perilous
zone of Cheeseman's vision before attempting her self-set task.

Anyhow, the danger had to be faced, and, timing her start so that the
mate should be at the opposite end of the bridge from the side of the
ship she selected for her rush, Nettle seized the bucket and raced for
the shelter of the deck-house. She reached it without, so far as she
knew, being observed, and so came to the alley under the bridge, where
she waited till the lighter sound of Cheeseman's heavy steps overhead
told that he had again receded from the side where she meant to
operate.

[Illustration: "Looking up, she caught the