of the Gold Coast Corps, who was going
home on sick leave ; envying him his
power of unlimited sleep; or lazily following
with our eyes the one-armed captain who
paced the deck in an uneasy, restless manner
from morning to night. He had not been home
for fourteen years, and had now left his ship,
a stationary merchant vessel, up the river
Bonny, to " have a look at the old country."

A more uncomfortable, unsatisfactory companion
it would be impossible to imagine;
and young Wilson, who shared a double
cabin with him, was loud in his complaints,
and pathetic in his appeals for sympathy.

"Sleep," said Wilson, "I can't sleep—that
fellow won't let me sleep; and it's all very
well to talk, but you can't get any sleep
worth having, in the day-time. You know
his berth is fixed just over mine, and
no sooner have I turned in, and fallen into
a doze than—rat-tat-tat-tat—goes the iron
hook fastened to the stump of his arm.

" The first night I thought he wanted
something, so I called out, ' What's the matter,
skipper? ' but he only growled at me in
reply. And I declare that every hour of
every night since then, or whenever he thinks
I am asleep, rat-tat-tat-tat comes that hook
on the frame of the berth just above my
head. I don't bear it meekly, I assure you,
and I have used more bad language to
that man than I ever used before in my life.
But, upon my honour, I believe he would
rather hear me swear at him than say nothing
at all; for he'll often give a kind of a sighing
groan after it, as though some one had lifted
a heavy weight from his chest."

"You may depend upon it he has got a bad
conscience," said our one lady. By the bye
she was treated with as much deference as if
she had been Queen of England; and she
was a queen in her own small way, and not
a bad queen either, — Queen of Beauty—
Wilson said, and one or two more who were
inclined to be spooney.

So of course when she suggested
"conscience " we all echoed the " depend upon
it," and every one offered laughingly a
possible explanation of the cause. And thus
we fell into a talk about this same conscience
and its torments, and began to tell stories
illustrative of it. Most of them were, I
must confess, neither very amusing nor very
instructive; and pretty Miss Graham began to
yawn, and her brother Captain Graham had
followed the example of young Wilson and
was fast asleep.

Then, after two old sea-captains had spun
a long yarn there was a pause, which Miss
Graham broke by exclaiming:

" Oh, Mr. Barkum, you have been to all
kinds of places, seen such queer things, do
tell us a true story."

The Mr. Barkum thus addressed— a jolly
old trader— replied with a grin:—

" What shall I tell you, miss ? "

" I don't know. As we are on the sea, tell
us a story of shipwreck— but not a melancholy
one."

" Never told one in my life, miss ! "

"But you have been shipwrecked, have
you not ? "

" Oh yes," said Mr. Barkum, " sure-ly yes
miss, sure-ly. Why I was shipwrecked here."
with a broad wave of the arm which included
the whole Atlantic.

" You don't say so, Mr. Barkum. Do tell
us all about it. What did you do ? "

"Well," said that gentleman, " we was tossed
here and we was tossed there for three days
and three nights, and then we took to the boats.
And after we took to the boats we was tossed
here and we was tossed there for three days
and three nights more ; — and wery cold and
wery wet we were. Then the victuals fell
short ; and for three days and three nights we
had nothin' to eat nor nothin' to drink, and
wery hungry and wery thirsty we were."

Here Mr. Barkum made a long pause.

Miss Graham said :—

"And was there no vessel to pick you up,
Mr. Barkum ? How did you manage ? "

" Well miss. We burnt priming and made
a fire in the dripping pan that the black cook
would not have believed. Then we cast lots,
and the lot fell on the steward ; so we
stewed — "

" Good Heaven, Mr. Barkum ! "

"Yes, miss, we did, indeed. We stewed
his boots— Wellingtons. The tops was the
tenderest. Then we cast lots again, and the
lot fell on the black cook ; so we stewed his
pumps ; but they was uneatable, though the
soup kept us alive, ten days. After that
we cast lots again and the lot fell on the
captain, and we stewed his water-boots ; but
"they was tremendous tough, sure-ly."

At this point Mr. Barkum was interrupted
by a general shout of remonstrance.

"Well," says he, " when a lady tells a man
she wants a story of a shipwreck, what's
he to do? I told the wery best I could."
And with another grin Mr. Barkum, who
seemed not so much to have told his story as
to have had it jerked out of him, leant back
and looked round him, apparently well satisfied
with the effect he had produced.

"Humph! " was uttered in a hoarse growl
behind 'him, at which we all started — for it
came from no other than the " silent man; "
—an old sea-captain, who had been picked up
nobody knew where or how, and who had not
uttered a syllable since he had been on board.
He would stand all day long looking over
the stern of the vessel, gloomy and intent,—
giving no answer to whomsoever addressed
him. But now he stooped over Miss Graham
and laying one rough hand on her shoulder
while with the other he pointed out beyond
the stern of the vessel:

"She'll do it," he said in a hoarse whisper,
"she'll do it she's bound to do it."

And he walked rather unsteadily to his
old position.