The night was a troubled one to the simple-minded proprietor of the good ship Pontiac.  Unable to voice his uneasiness by further discussion, but feeling that his late discomposing interview with his lodger demanded some marked protest, he absented himself on the plea of business during the rest of the evening, happily to his daughter’s utter obliviousness of the reason.  Lights were burning brilliantly in counting-rooms and offices, the feverish life of the mercantile city was at its height.  With a vague idea of entering into immediate negotiations with Mr. Sleight for the sale of the ship—­as a direct way out of his present perplexity, he bent his steps towards the financier’s office, but paused and turned back before reaching the door.  He made his way to the wharf and gazed abstractedly at the lights reflected in the dark, tremulous, jelly-like water.  But wherever he went he was accompanied by the absurd figure of his lodger—­a figure he had hitherto laughed at or half pitied, but which now, to his bewildered comprehension, seemed to have a fateful significance.  Here a new idea seized him, and he hurried back to the ship, slackening his pace only when he arrived at his own doorway.  Here he paused a moment and slowly ascended the staircase.  When he reached the passage he coughed slightly and paused again.  Then he pushed open the door of the darkened cabin and called softly: 

“Rosey!”

“What is it, father?” said Rosey’s voice from the little state-room on the right—­Rosey’s own bower.

“Nothing!” said Mr. Nott, with an affectation of languid calmness; “I only wanted to know if you was comfortable.  It’s an awful busy night in town.”

“Yes, father.”

“I reckon thar’s tons o’ gold goin’ to the States tomorrow.”

“Yes, father.”

“Pretty comfortable, eh?”

“Yes, father.”

“Well, I’ll browse round a spell, and turn in myself soon.”

“Yes, father.”

Mr. Nott took down a hanging lantern, lighted it, and passed out into the gangway.  Another lamp hung from the companion hatch to light the tenants to the lower deck, whence he descended.  This deck was divided fore and aft by a partitioned passage,—­the lofts or apartments being lighted from the ports, and one or two by a door cut through the ship’s side communicating with an alley on either side.  This was the case with the loft occupied by Mr. Nott’s strange lodger, which, besides a door in the passage, had this independent communication with the alley.  Nott had never known him to make use of the latter door; on the contrary, it was his regular habit to issue from his apartment at three o’clock every afternoon, dressed as he has been described, stride deliberately through the passage to the upper deck and thence into the street, where his strange figure was a feature of the principal promenade for two or three hours, returning as regularly at eight o’clock to the ship and the seclusion of his loft.  Mr.