'Thank you,' said Gilbert quietly, 'but I have done plenty of watch-keeping, both before and after I was a flag-lieutenant. The middle watch won't hurt me. I will relieve you at midnight.' 'As you like. Of course, the skipper and I recognise that it is a great obligation on your part----' 'Oh, rubbish! We are absolutely and literally "all in the same boat" now, and we've got to make the best of it.' Then Gilbert rose and said: 'By the way, I should like to go and see that poor chap, Fagg, if he is in his cabin. He's a nice young fellow.' 'He is, and a good sailor, though he doesn't make any fuss. Lord knows what's going to be the end of it all. I hope to Heaven those who are struck won't go the way of those niggers, and that their sight will come back before long.' 'I hope so, too; or else this will be one of the most awful calamities that ever fell upon any ship on a voyage. And the worst is, no one knows what the end is to be.' Then he turned on his heel and moved away with the intention of going to Fagg's cabin, while Charke, who was now half-way through his supper, went on steadily with it; yet, as Gilbert reached the gangway outside, the other made a further remark. 'By-the-by,' he said, 'another strange thing has happened. That infernal tiger-cub of Miss Waldron's--her pet!--seems going the same way as the others. It is crawling about the foredeck in a half-blind fashion, and evidently can't see signs made before its eyes. As far as the little beast goes, I shouldn't mind seeing it fall through one of the scuppers back into the sea it was dragged out of. It was rather rubbish to save it at all!' The words 'that infernal tiger-cub of Miss Waldron's' grated somewhat on Gilbert's feelings, as did also the brutality of the remark about its falling into the sea. Why this was so he did not know, unless it was that he had seen the interest Bella took in the little creature, and in feeding it and calling every one's attention to the extraordinary manner in which it seemed to grow almost hourly. Nevertheless, the observation did grate on him, and he began to tell himself that he did not care much for Stephen Charke. However, like a good many other young naval officers, he had thoroughly learnt the excellent system of controlling his thoughts in silence, wherefore, without making any further remark than saying that he was sorry to hear about 'Bengalee,' he went on his way towards Mr. Fagg's cabin, leaving the first mate to finish his supper by himself. He left him, also, to some strange meditations which, had they been uttered aloud in the presence of any listener, might have caused that person to imagine that he was the recipient of the babblings of a visionary. Put into words those musings would have taken some such form as this:--