of our fellows about it."

"I never says nothing to nobody," laughed Perth. "But I want to know
more about it."

"The arrangements are all made, and I don't think there is any chance
to fail."

"Good!"

But the professor commenced his lecture at this point, and the steerage
was hushed, so that it was not prudent even to whisper. The students
were all required, at these lectures, to be prepared with paper and
pencils, so that they could take notes, especially of dates and
statistics.

"Our party consists of Little, Ibbotson and myself," Herman wrote on
his paper, which he placed so that Perth could read it.

"Have you any stamps?" Perth wrote.

"No; but Ibbotson has a letter of credit on which he can raise some."

"My uncle, in Glasgow, sent me twenty pounds--four five-pound notes--at
the request of my father. I got it at Havre," wrote Perth. "I will join
you in Paris if I go to Germany; if not, I will start with you. Pop. N.
Ger., 28 mill.; S. Ger., 12.5 mill.; total, 40.5 mill.; about equal to
pop. of France."

The sudden change in the style of the second master's notes is
accounted for by the fact that the principal entered the steerage at
the moment indicated by the break in the conversation between the two
runaways. They were in the rear of all the other students, and were
fully exposed to Mr. Lowington's gaze as he passed out of the main
cabin. Perhaps he did not think it was quite natural for such students
as Perth and Herman to be engaged so industriously in taking notes; or
it may be that his practised eye fully comprehended at a glance the
nature of their occupation. The instant the door opened, Herman slyly
slipped off the sheet on which he had been writing, and thrust it into
his pocket. Perth had written over one of his small pages of note
paper, and begun upon a second. He had, when his companion had read
what he wrote upon it, slipped the first sheet into the atlas, which
served as a desk for him.

Mr. Lowington walked to the vicinity of Gangway B, and paused there.
Perth turned down the upper part of the sheet, on which he had written
the last part of his message to Herman, so that nothing objectionable
appeared on it, even if the principal took it into his head to look
over his shoulder. Perth was not at all flurried--he was too old a
rogue to commit himself by any weakness; and when he had written down
the statement of the professor, he paused and looked at the speaker, as
though he was w