Curious to fathom the mystery I went up to Curtis and began to
talk to him upon ordinary topics, hoping that he would himself
introduce the subject that was uppermost in my mind; finding,
however, that he did not allude to it; I asked him point blank.

"What was the matter in the night, Curtis?"

He looked at me steadily, but made no reply.

"What was it?" I repeated. "M. Letourneur and myself were both
of us disturbed by a very unusual commotion overhead."

"Oh, a mere nothing," he said at length; "the man at the helm had
made a false move, and we had to pipe hands to brace the ship a
bit; but it was soon all put to rights. It was nothing, nothing
at all."

I said no more; but I cannot resist the impression that Robert
Curtis has not acted with me in his usual straightforward manner.



CHAPTER VIII.

OCTOBER 15th to OCTOBER 18th.--The wind is still in the north-
east. There is no change in the "Chancellor's" course, and to an
unprejudiced eye all would appear to be going on as usual. But I
have an uneasy consciousness that something is not quite right.
Why should the hatchways be so hermetically closed as though a