"Then wot's wrong? Didn't you fancy the corfee an' bacon, after the high livin' ashore?" "The fact is, I met Miss Fenshawe, and she detained me a few minutes." "Is that any reason why you shouldn't eat?" "None whatever. I--er--really--forgot." "Forgot your breakfast! Come orf of it." Tagg climbed up, monkey-like. "Take my tip," he said earnestly, "This is a bad climate to go hungry in. You'd 'ave a touch of the sun in less'n no time. Just go below, an' force yerself to nibble a bit. It'll do you good, an' I don't mind keepin' watch another spell." Royson obeyed in silence. His friend's kindliness supplied an unconscious but necessary tonic to his system. Obviously, the second mate of the _Aphrodite_ had no business to trouble his head about the symbolism of rings worn by Miss Irene Fenshawe. Yet he wished he knew which was the engagement finger. Shortly before noon Captain Stump came on deck to take the sun. This was a semi-religious rite with Stump. Though the contours of the coast drawn along two sides of the Admiralty chart rendered a solar observation quite needless within sight of land, he proceeded to ascertain the yacht's position according to the formula, or, at any rate, according to such portion of it as applied to his rule-of-thumb calculations. Having pricked the chart and written the log, Stump bit the end off a cigar. He was ready for a gossip with Royson. "You won't find life quite so lively at Aden as at Massowah," he said. "We are bound for Aden, then?" "Where did you think we was headin' for? Melbourne?" "Well, sir, if I gave any thought to it I inclined more to the belief that we were making for our original destination." "An' where was that?" "A bay somewhere south of us, not far from Perin." "Have you heard anything fresh?" asked Stump quickly. "Not a word. But, if we reach Aden, I suppose the expedition will be abandoned." "They're chewin' about it now in the saloon," said the skipper, glancing over his shoulder to make sure there was no one within earshot. His sailor's eye swept the horizon at the same instant, and he saw a smoke-blur some miles astern. Breaking off the conversation abruptly, he Weal into the chart-house, and returned with a telescope, which, he balanced against a stay. "There's a steamer comin' after us in a desprit hurry," he announced, when a prolonged examination had enabled him to form an opinion. "After us?" repeated Dick. "That's the way I read it. She's from Massowah. The reg'lar channel is fifty miles east. Tell you wot, it's that I-talian gunboat the guv'nor spoke about." "But she was not in port when we left." "No. We passed her comin' in." "Ah, she recognized us?" "Not much. We were under sail, an carried no masthead light. When I twigged hers I tied a couple of sou'westers over our side lights. It's a good thing at sea to mind your own business sometimes, an', more'n that, to take care that other people mind theirs when they want to be nasty."