Miss Temple was still asleep. It was more like some issue of the sorcery of the imagination than the reality to come out of the windy dusk of the night and an association, momentary it might be, with the carpenter, to the spectacle of the slumbering beautiful girl breathing deep and restfully, with the gleam of her white teeth showing through her parted lips, and the lashes of her closed lids resting in a shadow of surprising loveliness upon her colourless cheeks. But rest was imperative to me; there was not another locker to use; and I would not leave the girl alone. I lightly touched her hand; she smiled, but slept on; I touched her again, and she sprang erect with an affrighted air, staring at me with the meaningless gaze of the newly awakened. ‘Ah!’ she cried with a violent shudder, ‘I thought it was the dead captain who touched me! How cold your hand is.’ ‘I am going to my berth to seek some rest,’ said I; ‘and would not leave you alone here.’ ‘Oh no!’ she exclaimed; ‘I will go with you.’ ‘You have been sleeping for above two hours,’ said I. ‘I am very glad. Slumber is strength; nay, it is life. You have been safe, and you will now tell me that I was in the right in entreating you to remain here.’ ‘In _commanding_ me, you mean,’ she answered with a faint smile. ‘But how miserable I was alone until I fell asleep—constantly imagining that that door was being cautiously opened’—another strong shudder swept through her while she motioned towards the captain’s cabin, holding her face averted. I unhooked the lantern belonging to my berth, lighted the candle in it, and, taking her by the hand, conducted her to the hatch. When we had entered the steerage, I lifted her hand to my lips in the old-fashioned salute and said: ‘Miss Temple, if I appear to _command_, it is with the hope of being useful as a protector to a companion whose claims upon me must needs deepen as we continue together and as the outlook darkens.’ I held open her cabin door for her, gave her my lantern; and then going to my own berth, groped my way to the bunk, and was speedily in a sound sleep.