“ It’s only a passenger! ” said he; and turning about, made, lantern and all, for the galley.

“He’s a man anyway,” cried Jones in indignation.

“Nobody said he was a woman,” said a gruff voice, which I recognised for that of the bo’s’un.

All this while there was no word of Blackwood or the doctor; and now the officer came to our side of the ship and asked, over the hurricane-deck rails, if the doctor were not yet come. We told him not.

“No?” he repeated with a breathing of anger; and we saw him hurry aft in person.