first opportunity that should offer."

Captain Len Guy made me no answer; he remained in silent thought,
but did not endeavour to slip away from me.

"You are doing me the honour to listen to me?" I asked him
sharply.

"Yes, sir."

"I will then add that, if I am not mistaken, and if the route of
your ship has not been altered, it was your intention to leave
Christmas Harbour for Tristan d' Acunha."

"Perhaps for Tristan d'Acunha, perhaps for the Cape, perhaps for
the Falklands, perhaps for elsewhere."

"Well, then, Captain Guy, it is precisely elsewhere that I want to
go," I replied ironically, and trying hard to control my
irritation.

Then a singular change took place in the demeanour of Captain Len
Guy. His voice became more sharp and harsh. In very plain words he
made me understand that it was quite useless to insist, that Our
interview had already lasted too long, that time pressed, and he had
business at the port; in short that we had said all that we could
have to say to each other.

I had put out my arm to detain him--to seize him would be a more
correct term--and the conversation, ill begun, seemed likely to end
still more ill, when this odd person turned towards me and said in a
milder tone,--

"Pray understand, sir, that I am very sorry to be unable to do
what you ask, and to appear disobliging to an American. But I could
not act otherwise. In the course of the voyage of the _Halbrane_ some
unforeseen incident might occur to make the presence of a passenger
inconvenient--even one so accommodating as yourself. Thus I might
expose myself to the risk of being unable to profit by the chances
which I seek."

"I have told you, captain, and I repeat it, that although my
intention is to return to America and to Connecticut, I don't care
whether I get there in three months or in six, or by what route;
it's all the same to me, and even were your schooner to take me to
the Antarctic seas--"

"The Antarctic seas!" exclaimed Captain Len Guy with a question
in his tone. And his look searched my thoughts with the keenness of
a dagger.

"Why do you speak of the Antarctic seas?" he asked, taking my
hand.

"Well, just as I might have spoken of the 'Hyperborean seas'
from whence an Irish poet has made Sebastian Cabot address some
lovely verses to his Lady. (1) I spoke of the South Pole as I might
have spoken of the North."

Captain Len Guy did not answer, and I thought I saw tears glisten in
his eyes. The