first, that I was still in my own cabin, and secondly, that Julius was
bending over me with a water jug in one hand and a tumbler in the other,
from the latter of which he had just dashed a quantity of water in my
face. Also I was conscious of a splitting headache, and a burning,
smarting sensation in the right temple. I put up my hand, passed it
over the seat of the pain, and was immediately conscious of an increased
smart. As I lowered my hand I looked at it stupidly: it was smeared
with blood.

"Oh, that's nothing!" commented the boy, as I looked questioningly at
the ruddy stain; "you've cut your forehead a bit, that's all. Thank
goodness, you've woke up at last! I thought at first you'd handed in
your checks. Now, I say, just get up and come with me to the
drawing-room. Momma's somehow pinned in her cabin, and I want you to
get her out."

"All right!" I said; "I'll come. But what has happened to the ship?
She seems to be--"

"I dunno," replied the boy. "She's wrecked, that's all that I can tell
you. Her three masts are broken; and, exceptin' Momma, 'Thea, and I,
you're the only person left."

"The only person left!" I ejaculated, as I staggered to my feet. "Good
Heavens, boy, what do you mean?"

"Just exactly what I say," returned Master Julius. "And see here, you,"
he continued aggressively, "don't you dare to call me `boy' again. I
don't like it, and I won't have it. See?"

"Certainly," I replied, with a smile at the lad's astonishing touchiness
at such a moment; "I both see and hear. All right! I apologise. And
now, what is this you say about your mother? She is jammed in her cabin
and can't get out? I will go and attend to her first; and when she has
been released I must look into that other matter of the missing crew."

"I guess the first thing you'll do after you've got Momma out of her
cabin will be to get my breakfast ready, and don't you forget it!"
retorted the boy.

While we talked I had been hastily dressing, and until I had finished I
said nothing. I suppose it was the blow on the head that I had
received, coupled with the growing consciousness that some disaster, far
more frightful than I had thus far dreamed of, had befallen us, that
made me suddenly irritable and short-tempered then. Anyhow, the lad's
manner jarred upon me at the moment to such an extent that, as I was
about to lead the way through the doorway of my cabin, I halted and
turned upon the youngster.