We had already forged past the main point of the island, which lay abaft the lee beam, less than half a mile distant, when I started on this errand for the last time. Going down the companion, I was struck by an uneasy feeling, and found myself hurrying through the entry. When I reached the cabin, Devereux’s door stood open, a black hole in the dim light of the swinging lamp above the chart table. A glance into the room showed me that he was no longer in the bunk. I ran to the forward cabin door, but seeing no one out there, turned and jumped up the after companion on the dead run. "Have you seen Mr Devereux come on deck?" I cried to the helmsman. "No, sir" Nichols, at the stern rail, had heard my question, and ran forward to meet me. "Isn’t he in his room?" he asked. "No. I can’t find him anywhere in the cabin. Must have gone up the forward companion" Together we hurried forward along the weather alley. Reaching the corner of the house, where the main deck opened before us, we made out two men standing to leeward of the mainmast, apparently in earnest conversation. One seemed eager, excited; the other was evidently on the defensive. Devereux and the mate, we saw the next instant. It crossed my mind that the mate was ignorant of the intimate details of Devereux’s malady; he wasn’t the sort of fellow to take into confidential relations. We heard his voice, now, sharply raised, as if in a final attempt to quell the other’s insistence. "But we aren’t going to stop here, I tell you! There’s nothing to stop for, no place to call...." "_Not going to stop?..._" Devereux repeated wildly. He turned toward the rail, holding his arms stiffly outstretched in a gesture of utter distraction. Who can imagine the thoughts that leaped through his brain at that moment, or fathom the depths of the disappointment that suddenly crushed his already broken mind? "Look out" cried Nichols at my elbow "Don’t let him get away!" But it was already too late; Devereux had heard the warning, too, and accepted it as a challenge. With a wild cry that seemed to tremble among the upper sails and echo back from the wooded heights of the island, he leaped forward, dodging the mate, and gained the bulwarks just abaft the fore preventor backstay. For an instant he stood there, silhouetted against the bright track of the moonlight, confronting the vision that was reality—then plunged with a magnificent abandon, and disappeared under the silvery surface of the water. We saw him strike out toward the island. The ship forged ahead, carrying the moon-track with her; before we could get out a boat, he had vanished in the shrouded wastes astern. We sought for a night and a day, but could find no trace of his body. In that swift current setting seaward, it was impossible that he could have reached the land. *SERVANT AND MASTER* *SERVANT AND MASTER* *I* "Steward!"