"But what?" said he--his eyes sparkling, his brows knit, and his features blue and pinched, as if he had seen a spectre--"But what, Mr Brail? for God Almighty's sake, tell me the worst at once." "Sir Oliver, he is _missing_." His hands dropped by his side, as if suddenly struck with palsy; his jaw fell, and his voice became hollow, tremulous, and indistinct, as if the muscles of his lips and tongue had refused to do their office. When he spoke, it seemed as if the words had been formed in his chest--"_Missing!_" "Yes, Sir Oliver," said Sprawl, utterly thunderstruck at his superior's conduct--"Mr De Walden is _missing_." The old man staggered, and would have fallen, had he not caught hold of the scroll head of the sofa. I thought he had fainted, but he gradually recovered himself, and stood erect. There was a long pause. At length he made a step towards us, and said, with an expression of the most bitter irony--"So, gentlemen, Mr De Walden _is missing_; the only officer _missing_ is a poor young midshipman; a prisoner amongst these savages, forsooth; a prisoner! Oh, God! I could have brooked hearing of his death;--but a prisoner, and in the power of such an enemy! I bless Heaven, that his poor mother has been spared this misery--would that I had also been in my grave before--But, but"--his tone suddenly became fierce and threatening, and he raised his hand close to my face. I thought he would have struck me--"But how came it, Mr Brail--Mr Sprawl and Mr Lanyard there, I see, are both scathless--but you have been wounded, so I will speak to you--How came it, sir, that he is missing? He must have been deserted, sir--forsaken--left to his fate--and such a fate!--while you, my worthy lieutenants," here he turned round fiercely on his two subalterns, "were wisely looking out for a sound skin and safety." We were all so utterly taken by surprise at this furious climax to what we began to consider the commodore's insanity, that neither the first lieutenant, Lanyard, nor myself, notwithstanding all that had passed, could speak; which gave Sir Oliver time to breathe and continue in the same tone of fiendlike acerbity--"If I live, you shall both answer for this before a court-martial. Yes; and if you escape there, _you shall not escape me_."