God! in such a state?" exclaimed his
comrades when they saw him.

"What has happened to you?"

And, when he had told them all he had gone through since they parted,
they said,--

"Certainly, my dear Champcey, you are a lucky fellow. This is the second
accident from which you escape as by a miracle. Mind the third!"

"Mind the third!" that was exactly what Daniel thought.

For, in the midst of all the frightful sufferings he had undergone
during the past night, he had reflected deeply. That block which had
fallen on his head, no one knew whence; this boat sinking suddenly, and
without apparent cause--were they the work of chance alone?

The awkwardness of the boatman who had so unexpectedly turned up to
offer him his services had filled his mind with strange doubts. This
man, a wretched sailor, might be a first-class swimmer; and, having
taken all his measures before upsetting the boat, he might easily have
reached land after the accident.

"This boatman," Daniel thought, "evidently wanted me to perish. Why, and
what purpose? Evidently not for his sake. But who is interested in my
death? Sarah Brandon? No, that cannot be!"

What was still less likely was, that a wretch in Sarah Brandon's pay
should have found his way on board "The Conquest," and should then have
been precisely at the right moment at the wharf, the first time Daniel
went on shore. Still his suspicions troubled him to such a degree, that
he determined to make every effort to solve the mystery.

To begin, _he asked_ for a list of all the men who had been allowed to
go on shore the night before. He learned in reply, that only the crews
of the different boats had been at Saigon, but that all the emigrants
having been allowed to land, several of these men had also gone on
shore. With this information, and in spite of his great weakness, Daniel
went to the chief of police at Saigon, and asked him for an officer.
With this agent he went to the wharf, to the spot where the boat of
"The Conquest" had been lying the night before, and asked him to make
inquiries there as to any boatman that might have disappeared during the
night.

None of the boatmen was missing; but they brought Daniel a poor Annamite
fellow, who had been wandering about the river-bank ever since early
morning, tearing his hair, and crying that he had been robbed; that
they had stolen his boat. Daniel had been unable the night before to
distinguish the form or the dress of the man whos