y glad, Mrs. Renshaw, if you will accept the
responsibility. A captain's hands are full enough without having to look
after women. There are four or five single ladies on board, on all of
whom I have promised to keep a watchful eye, and I shall be delighted to
be relieved of the responsibility of two of them."

So the matter was arranged, and going down into the cabin a few minutes
before the bell rang for dinner, the party succeeded in getting the
places they desired. Mr. Atherton was next to the chief officer. Wilfrid
sat next to him, Marion between her brother and Mrs. Renshaw, and Mr.
Renshaw next. The two Allens faced Mr. Atherton and Wilfrid; the Miss
Mitfords came next, facing Marion and her mother. A Captain Pearson and
his wife were next to the Mitfords, while a civil engineer, Mr.
Halbrook, occupied the vacant seat next to Mr. Renshaw. Once seated, the
Renshaws speedily congratulated themselves on the arrangements that they
had made as they saw the hesitating way in which the rest of the
passengers took their places, and the looks of inquiry and doubt they
cast at those who seated themselves next to them. For a time the meal
was a silent one, friends talking together in low voices, but nothing
like a general conversation being attempted. At the first officers' end
of the table, however, the sound of conversation and laughter began at
once.

"Have you room, Miss Renshaw? or do you already begin to regret your
bargain?"

"I have plenty of room, thank you," Marion replied. "I hope that you
have enough?"

"Plenty," Mr. Atherton answered. "I have just been telling your brother
that if he finds I am squeezing him he must run his elbow into my ribs.
Let me see, Mr. Ryan; it must be three years since we sat together."

"Just about that," the mate replied with a strong Irish accent. "You
went with us from Japan to Singapore, did you not?"

"That was it, and a rough bout we had of it in that cyclone in the China
Seas. You remember that I saved the ship then?"

"How was that, Mr. Atherton?" Wilfrid asked.

The first officer laughed. "Mr. Atherton always took a deal more credit
to himself than we gave him. When the cyclone struck the ship and
knocked her right down on her beam-ends, he happened to be sitting up to
windward, and he always declared that if it hadn't been for his weight
the ship would never have righted itself."

There was a general laugh at the mate's explanation.

"I always plant myself to wind