And the two men were agreed that had their captain been as short of it as they had been one time and another he would not talk such foolishness.  The chief mate intimated that he was going to have a nap, but that his mind was torn with presentiment which he could not speak about calmly.  At four o’clock when he came on deck he was made aware of what had taken place during his watch below, whereupon he lapsed into a kind of inarticulate stupor, and could not speak the unutterable.  He placed his right hand on his brow, and then on his left breast, and stood gazing at the long Atlantic rollers, which had the appearance of an uneven reef of rocks.  The stage of stupor and grief was superseded by that of resigned indignation.  He plaintively called out—­

“Well, I’ll—­be—­teetotally—­d——­d!  Miles of sea to be paved with that beautiful tobacco!  Retribution will come to somebody; and, by thunder! it should come with a clattering vengeance.  I will never forget the sight as long as I have breath.”

The captain came up to him, and seeing that his mind was centred on what he regarded as not only a calamity but a crime, he was so much amused at his ludicrously pathetic appearance that he laughingly repeated—­

“Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand, and the sound of a voice that is still.”

The inappropriate words were merely used as a piece of chaff, but Mr. S——­ was not in a chaffing mood, so he retorted that he did not see where the humour came in, and there was nothing to laugh at, and so on.  He then walked on to the bridge, and he and the captain were not on friendly speaking terms any more during the voyage.

At midnight on the sixth day after parting company from the Spaniards, the vessel was hove to to take a pilot aboard.  Captain S——­ took him aside as soon as he boarded, and asked him in an undertone if he ever did anything in the contraband line.  He held up his hands as though he were horrified at the suggestion, and exclaimed—­

“Not for the world, captain!”

“Very well,” replied the captain; “you go below, and I will join you in a minute or two, after giving orders to the steward to make tea for us.”

As a matter of fact, he remained behind to give orders to the mate to throw overboard the remaining six bales, which was a further trial to the grief-stricken officer; and having done this the captain joined the pilot, and entered into conversation with him.  The two men were not long in discovering that they each belonged to the brotherhood of Freemasons.  This put them on easy terms at once, and encouraged the pilot to inquire into the meaning of the words spoken to him on boarding.

“I do not quite know how I stand in relation to that,” said the captain.  “Indeed, I am perplexed as to the plan I ought to adopt.  So many difficulties confront me as the scheme of development goes on; but so far as I have been able to work out the problem, I think my attitude must be straightforward, and that I should make a full voluntary statement to the authorities.  Meanwhile, if you pledge me your Masonic honour to keep it a secret until I have made it public, I will tell you the whole story.”