Two bells--nine o’clock--had been struck. Most of the passengers were below, for there was a deal of dew in the air, too much of it for the thin dresses of the ladies, who, through the skylight, were to be seen reading and chatting in the cuddy, with a party of whist-players at the table, Mr. Emmett’s and Mr. Hodder’s noses close together over a cribbage board, and Colledge at chess with Miss Temple, Miss Hudson opposite, leaning her shining head on her arm bare to the elbow, a faultless limb indeed, watching them. The breeze had freshened at sundown. There was a half-moon in the heavens, with a tropic brightness of disc, and the ocean under her light spread away to its limits in a surface firm and dark as polished indigo, saving that under the planet there was a long trembling wake, and an icy sparkle in the eastern waters, over which some large, most beautiful star was hanging; but though there was breeze enough to put a merry rippling into the sea, the feathering of each little surge was too delicate to catch the eye, unless the white water broke close; and the deep brimmed to the distant luminaries, a mighty shadow. The skipper was below; Mr. Cocker had charge of the deck, and I joined him in his walk. He talked of the monkeys, how the poor wretches had died one after another in the forecastle. ‘I saw one of them die,’ said he: ‘upon my life, Mr. Dugdale, it was like seeing a human being expire. I don’t wonder women dislike that kind of beasts. For my part, I regard monkeys as poor relations.’ ‘What were the men laughing at, shortly after we had come up from dinner?’ I asked. ‘Why, sir, at little John Chinaman. The ape was on the fore-hatch, secured by a piece of line round his waist. Johnny went to have a look at him. There was nobody about--at least he thought so. He stared hard at the ape, who viewed him eagerly with his one eye, and then said: “I say, where you from, hey?” The ape continued to look. “Oh, you can speakee,” continued John; “me savee you can for speakee. Why you no talkee, hey? Me ask where you from? Where you from?” The ape caught a flea. “How you capsize, hey?” asked the Chinese lunatic as gravely, Mr. Dugdale, so the men say, as if he were addressing you or me. “Speakee soft--how you capsize, hey?” This went on, I am told, for ten minutes, the men meanwhile coming on tip-toe to listen over the forecastle edge till they could stand it no longer, and their roar of laughter was what you heard, sir.’ ‘A mere bit of sham posture-making in Johnny, don’t you think?’ said I. ‘He might guess the men were listening. Had he been a negro, now. But a Chinaman would very well know that a monkey can’t talk.’