In the captain's chair, between the derricks and the bell, far above and behind which the chimneys' vast double plume of smoke and sparks trailed down the steamer's wake, sat Hugh Courteney, quite uncompanioned. So his father had just left him, leaving with him the thought, though without hint of it in word or tone, that some night, on some boat as deeply freighted with cares as this one, he must sit thus, her master. The wonder of it, with the wonder of the boat herself and all she carried, sounded a continuous stern alarum through his spirit like a long roll sounding through a camp: "Be a man! Make haste! See even those Hayle twins, with all their faults, and up! Make haste! Rise up and be a man!" Had the wonder-loving Ramsey been there she must have laughed again; looking into his round, heavy visage was so much like looking into the back of a watch--one saw such ceaseless movement of mind yet learned so little from it. Amid his wonderings he wondered of her; not only where at that moment she might be, but what a child she still was, and yet in how few years--as few as two or three--she would be a woman, might be a bride. But soon a bride or never, the boat was full of matters only less remarkable and he gently let the girl out of his thought by looking behind him. The windows of the captain's room--between the chimneys--front room of the texas--gave shining evidence that somewhere the captain was yet astir. From the rayless pilot-house above it faint notes of speech showed that some one was up there with the pilot, but at the same time a near-by tread drew Hugh to his feet with quick pleasure and again his father stood before him, looking at the lights of the _Antelope_, a few hundred yards ahead. "She'll soon be astern," said Hugh. "We can't keep her so," replied the captain, accepting his chair. "We must land too often. Where's your crony?" "The commodore? He's turned in." After a pause--"Father, you've shipped a lot of trouble." "Yes," was the light response, "counting Hayle's twins." "I wish you'd give me full charge of them." "Do you?" laughed the father. "Take it. You hear them, don't you?" They were easy to hear, down on the forward freight deck, dancing round a bottle of liquor, and---- "Singing 'Gideon's Band,'" said Hugh listening. "Yes," said the amused captain, "after pledging me on their honor to go straight to bed." Hugh started away so abruptly that his father asked: "Where are you bound?" "I'm going to send them to bed." "Both of them?" smilingly asked the captain. "Yes, both." "Not both at once?" "Yes, both at once. Do you know where their sister is?" "Why, abed and asleep long ago, is she not?" "I don't know," said Hugh, going; "I doubt it."