The steward was evidently a man with an inquisitive turn of mind, for during the conversation just recorded he was kneeling on the top of his bunk, with his ear pressed close to a small orifice in the partition wall. It was an odd coincidence that the steward, who had shipped under the name of “William Trace,” should have a hole at the front of his berth through which he could survey the cabin when desirous of doing so. Still more odd was it that the pantry should also be similarly furnished with means of observation. To prevent undue notice of his own movements, Mr. Trace had furnished his peepholes with small discs of cardboard, with which he covered them when he required a light in his room. The orifices were so small and so cleverly placed as to be almost certain to escape detection, provided the steward was careful. When we first observe him watching the captain, and listening to his conversation with Mr. Torrens, his face is lighted up with joy, and his limbs are shaking with excitement. “He cannot escape me,” he thinks. “I have run him to earth, and within ten days he will be denounced. Heaven grant me patience to keep my counsel until we reach Malta. Ha! now he returns with his ill-gotten gains, and that other scoundrel little imagines how he will be punished for his greed.” For the next ten minutes Mr. Trace finds connected thought impossible, but, with his eye put close to the peephole, is taking a necessarily circumscribed view of the scene being enacted in the captain’s berth. There is a tempting display of very beautiful jewellery, and there is considerable haggling anent its distribution. But the latter is accomplished at last, and the captain places his share in his private desk, which he locks very carefully. Mr. Torrens, wearing a very savage look on his face, crosses the cabin to his own berth, and fastens the door after him. As it is still early in the afternoon, he is perhaps thinking of taking a nap. The steward is apparently satisfied with his observations for the present, for he gets down from his post of vantage, and prepares himself for his afternoon duties. Tea has to be ready at five o’clock, and, from a purely stewardly point of view, much time has been wasted, so that it behoves him to hurry himself now. His beard, which is brown and bushy, requires some little readjustment, and Captain Cochrane would be considerably surprised if he could see how easily removable both beard and wig are.