“Pon my soul, I couldn’t make it out, and I apologise.  But a man’s nerves go all at once sometimes—­can’t help himself, you know.  Mine did once when I was in the nigger-catching business in the Solomon Islands.  Natives opened fire on us when our boats were aground in a creek, and some of our men got hit.  I wasn’t a bit scared of a smack from a bullet, but when I got a scratch on my hand from an arrow, I dropped in a blue funk, and acted like a cur.  Knew it was poisoned, felt sure I’d die of lockjaw, and began to weep internally.  Then the mate called me a rotten young cur, shook me up, and put my Snider into my hand.  But I shall always feel funky at the sight even of a child’s twopenny bow and arrow.  Now I must go.”

The clergyman nodded and smiled, and then rising from his seat, he tapped at the door of his wife’s state-room.  She opened it, and then Otway, who was helping the steward, heard her sob hysterically.

“Oh, Will, Will, why did you?  How could you?  I love you, Will dear, I love you, and if death comes to us in another hour, another minute, I shall die happily with your arms round me.  But, Will dear, there is a God, I’m sure there is a God....  I feel it in my heart, I feel it.  And now that death is so near to us——­”

Lacy put his arms around her, and lifted her trembling figure upon his knees.

“There, rest yourself, my pet.”

“Rest!  Rest?” she said brokenly, as Lacy drew her to him.  “How can I rest when I think of how I have sinned, and how I shall die!  Will dear, when I heard you reading that prayer—­”

“I had to do it, Nell.”

“Will, dear Will....  Perhaps God may forgive us both....  But as I sat here in my dark cabin, and listened to you reading that prayer, my husband’s face came before me—­the face that I thought was so dull and stupid.  And his eyes seemed so soft and kind—­”

“For God’s sake, my dear little woman, don’t think of what is past.  We have made the plunge together——­”

The woman uttered one last sobbing sigh.  “I am not afraid to die, Will.  I am not afraid, but when I heard you begin to read that prayer, my courage forsook me.  I wanted to scream—­to rush out and stop you, for it seemed to me as if you were doing it in sheer mockery.”

“I can only say again, Nell, that I could not help myself; made me feel pretty sick, I assure you.”

Their voices ceased, and presently Lacy stepped out into the main cabin, and then went on deck again.

Robertson met him with a cheerful face.  “Come on, Mr. Lacy.  I’ve some good news for you—­we are making less water!  The leak must be taking up in some way.”  Then holding on to the rail with one hand, he shouted to the men at the pumps.

“Shake her up, boys! shake her up.  Here’s Mr. Lacy come to lend a hand, and the supercargo and steward will be with you in a minute.  Now I’m going below for a minute to tell the ladies, and mix you a bucket of grog.  Shake her up, you, Tom Tarbucket, my bully boy with a glass eye!  Shake her up, and when she sucks dry, I’ll stand a sovereign all round.”