ts very singular appearance. I noted
this morning, without appearing to do so, that there was a great deal of
animated conversation going on upon the forecastle, accompanied by many
stealthy glances toward the poop; while the late steward--now sweltering
in the heat of the galley, and of his hirsute disguise--was being
continually appealed to. Now that I knew this man's secret I was filled
with astonishment that I had not immediately penetrated it; for,
disguise his features as he might, he could not divest himself of the
sly, stealthy way in which he used his eyes, nor of the noiseless,
treacherous way in which he moved. I had noted these characteristics in
him as far back as the day on which he had signed articles at Sydney;
yet, strange to say, familiar as they were to me, I had never for a
moment suspected his identity, probably because, when I happened to
think of him at all, I assumed as a matter of course that he would
naturally make the best of his way to the gold-fields. Of course, since
we had been at sea, his avocation as cook had confined him so closely to
the galley that I had rarely seen him; and upon the rare occasions when
he had been obliged to present himself in full view my thoughts had
usually been so busy upon other matters that I had taken little or no
notice of him. Indeed, I shrewdly suspected that it was the comparative
privacy of the galley that had led him to choose the disagreeable
functions of ship's cook.

All that day, until three o'clock in the afternoon, we glided gently
along over a smooth, sparkling sea, toward the island, noting with keen
interest its various features as they imperceptibly resolved themselves
out of the hazy blue tint that it had worn in the distance. The first
marked change that occurred in its appearance was the breaking-up of the
flat silhouette into a series of softly shadowed markings which
indicated the shapes of the hills and valleys, the slopes and ravines
into which its surface was broken. Then, as the sun swept over it and
round toward its western side, the light fell more strongly upon its
hillsides; its shadows grew deeper, and an all-pervading tone of green
gave evidence of its exceeding fertility. Later still, the green became
broken up into an infinite variety of shades; while the swelling rounded
outlines that stood out from and yet indicated these multitudinous
tints, revealed the fact that the island was densely wooded to its very
summit. By