her, we might get her up a bit and then she would move faster.  Her hatch-combings were high, and the sea had not washed clear over them yet, while her high strakes would be all the tighter, now that they had been under water for days.  This seemed to be a very fair argument, but, while the skipper talked, my eyes were upon the glass case at the end of the cabin, where a row of bottles showed through the front and above the wooden frames.  They contained the drugs usually carried aboard ship, and while the skipper talked to me I wondered if there were any poisons in that case which would be of service to Andrews.  When we were through, the captain and I left the cabin, for there had been no watches at meals; all had eaten together in order to facilitate matters of cooking, the men only eating at different times from the officers.

As we passed up the after-companionway, I looked into the case and endeavored to interest the skipper in drugs for the men in case of sickness.  He showed me a bottle of arnica, one of squibbs, another of peppermint, and many other drugs used as simple remedies.  At the end of a long row was one containing a white powder, unlabelled.  I picked it up and opened the vial, thinking to taste it to see if it was quinine.  Its weight, however, made me certain this could not be, and I was just about to put a bit on my tongue when Sackett stopped me.

“It’s bichloride of mercury.  Don’t taste it,” said he.

I was not much of a chemist; for a mate’s knowledge of the atomic theory must necessarily be slight.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Oh, a poison.  I only keep it for vermin and certain skin diseases.  It’s too deadly to keep around, though, and I’ve a notion to heave it overboard—­”

“Steamer on starboard quarter, sir,” came the cry of England, who was at the wheel.

We were bounding up the companionway in an instant, and looking to the northward as soon as our feet struck the deck.  There, sure enough, was a dark smudge of smoke on the horizon.

“Get the glass,” said Sackett.

He took it and gazed hard at the dark streak.

“I can just make out her mastheads.  She seems to be coming along this way,’” he said, after a moment.

All hands gathered upon the poop and watched the smoke.  Those who hadn’t had their dinner, hastily went below and came up again with the junk in their hands, munching it as they stood gazing after the rising mastheads.  Soon the funnel of the steamer rose above the horizon, and showed that she was standing almost directly parallel to our course.  We had run up a distress signal from the main, and now all waited until the stranger should make it out and send a boat or heave to.  Our own boat was towing astern, so Sackett had her drawn up to the mizzen channels, ready for the men to get aboard.  Miss Sackett came from below and announced that she was ready to accompany the boat.

“If you are silly enough to stay, papa, I can’t help it,” she said.  “I am tired of sitting around in a cabin with my feet in the water, eating stuff fit for pigs.  I think you really ought to give the old boat up.”