"Can't hear a thing," he declared laconically. "I've a cold in my head coming on, and it always affects my hearing." Jocelyn Thew stepped on tiptoe across the deck as far as the rail and returned in a few minutes. "There's a steamer calling, away on the starboard bow," he announced. "She seems to be getting nearer, too. I wonder we don't alter our course." "Well, I suppose it's the captain's business whether he chooses to answer or not," Crawshay remarked. "I shall go down to my cabin. This gazing at nothing gets on my nerves." Jocelyn Thew returned to his damp vigil. Leaning over the wet wooden rail, he drew a little diagram on the back of an envelope and worked out some figures. Then he listened once more, the slight frown upon his forehead deepening. Finally he tore up his sketch and made his way to the doctor's room. The doctor was seated at his desk and glanced up enquiringly as his visitor entered. "I just looked in to see how young Robins was getting on," Jocelyn explained. "I am afraid he is in rather a bad way," was the grave reply. "What is the nature of his illness?" The doctor shrugged his shoulders. His manner became a little vague. "I must remind you, Mr. Thew," he said, "that a doctor is not always at liberty to discuss the ailments of his patients. On board ship this custom becomes more, even, than mere etiquette. It is, in fact, against the regulations of the company for us to discuss the maladies of any passenger upon the steamer." "I recognise the truth of all that you say," Jocelyn Thew agreed, "but it happens that I know the young man and his people. Naturally, therefore, I take an interest in him, and I am sure they would think it strange if, travelling upon the same steamer, I did not make these very ordinary enquiries." "You know his people, do you?" the doctor repeated. "Where does he come from, Mr. Thew?" "Somewhere over New Jersey way," was the glib reply, "but I used to meet his father often in New York. There can be no mystery about his illness, can there, doctor--no reason why I should not go and see him?" "I have placed the young man in quarantine," was the brief explanation, "and until he is released no one can go near him." "Something catching, eh?" "Something that might turn out to be catching." Jocelyn Thew shrugged his shoulders and accepted what amounted almost to a little nod of dismissal. He ascended the staircase thoughtfully and came face to face with Katharine Beverley, issuing from the music room. She greeted him with a little exclamation of relief. "Mr. Thew," she exclaimed, "I have been looking for you everywhere. Doctor Gant thinks," she added, lowering her voice, "that if you wish to see his patient alive, you had better come at once." "There is a change in his condition, then?" "Yes," she told him gravely.