There were a few passengers moving about the deck, but it was too dark to make sure of them, though the delicate sheen in the air, falling in a sort of silver showering from the velvet-dark heaven of brilliants on high, enabled one to see forms and to follow the movements of things clearly. There was a deal of phosphorus in the water this night, and I stood looking over the lee quarter at the pale green or sun-coloured flashings of it as it swept into the race of our wake in fiery coils, in configurations as of writhing serpents, in fibrine interwreathings that would enlarge and shape themselves into the proportions of sea-monsters and leviathan fish. ‘Is it true, do you know, that one of the sailors died this afternoon?’ exclaimed a low, clear, but most melodious voice by my side. It was Miss Temple. She started as I quitted my leaning posture and turned to her. ‘Oh, I beg your pardon,’ she exclaimed in a changed note. It was very clear she had mistaken me--for Colledge, for all I can tell. She was alone. Yet had she come from the cuddy, she must certainly have seen the young sprig playing at the table with Fairthorne at chess. ‘I should be glad to answer your question,’ said I coolly, ‘if you care to stop and listen, Miss Temple.’ By the starlight I could see her fine imperious dark eyes bent on me. ‘It is curious,’ she exclaimed--and perhaps by daylight I should have found some sign of a smile in her face; but her countenance showed like marble in that shadow--‘that this should be the second time I have asked you about what is happening in the ship. You have been a sailor, I think, Mr. Dugdale?’ ‘Mr. Colledge has doubtless told you so,’ said I. ‘Yes; it was he who told me. You share his cabin, I believe. Will you tell me if it be true that one of the sailors has died?’ ‘It is true,’ said I; ‘a sailor named Crabb died this morning.’ ‘Has he been buried?’ ‘No; that ceremony is to take place in the morning, I believe.’ ‘Our ship, then, will sail all night long with a dead body on board?’ she exclaimed with a lift of her eyes to the stars and then a look seawards. ‘Are not the superstitions of sailors opposed to such burdens?’