account for it?"

Mr. Wilks shook his head again. "I wasn't here," he said, plucking up
courage. "Why not go an' see your father? Seems to me 'e is the one
that would know most about it."

Mr. Nugent stood for a minute considering, and then raising the latch of
the door opened it slowly and inhaled the cold morning air. A subtle and
delicate aroma of coffee and herrings which had escaped from neighbouring
breakfast-tables invaded the room and reminded him of an appetite. He
turned to go, but had barely quitted the step before he saw Mrs. Kingdom
and his sister enter the alley.

Mr. Wilks saw them too, and, turning if anything a shade paler, supported
himself by the door-pest. Kate Nugent quickened her pace as she saw
them, and, after a surprised greeting to her brother, breathlessly
informed him that the captain was missing.

"Hasn't been home all night," panted Mrs. Kingdom, joining them. "I
don't know what to think."

They formed an excited little group round the steward's door, and Mr.
Wilks, with an instinctive feeling that the matter was one to be
discussed in private, led the way indoors. He began to apologize for the
disordered condition of the room, but Jack Nugent, interrupting him
brusquely, began to relate his own adventures of the past few hours.

Mrs. Kingdom listened to the narrative with unexpected calmness. She
knew the cause of her nephew's discomfiture. It was the glass of whisky
acting on a system unaccustomed to alcohol, and she gave a vivid and