heard nothing of breakers?"

"I have, Mr. Woolston, and now own I did see something that may have
been white water, this afternoon, while aloft; but the captain and
second-mate seemed so awarse to believing in sich a thing, out here in
the open Pacific, that I got to be awarse, too."

"It was a great fault in a look-out not to let what he had seen be
known," said Mark, gravely.

"I own it, sir; I own how wrong I was, and have been sorry for it ever
since. But it's going right in the wind's eye, Mr. Woolston, to go ag'in
captain and dickey!"

"But, you now think you have _heard_ breakers--where away?"

"Astarn first; then ahead; and, just as you called me up on the poop,
sir, I fancied they sounded off here, on the weather bow."

"Are you serious, Bob?"

"As I ever was in my life, Mr. Mark. This oversight of the arternoon has
made me somewhat conscientious, if I can be conscientious, and my sight
and hearing are now both wide awake. It's my opinion, sir, that the ship
is in the _midst_ of breakers at this instant, and that we may go on 'em
at any moment!"

"The devil it is!" exclaimed Captain Crutchely, who now appeared on the
poop, and who caught the last part of Bob Betts's speech. "Well, for my
part, I hear nothing out of the way, and I will swear the