the assumption that the captain took a mere girl into his confidence
and passed over the wife of the ex-Chief Justice of Hong Kong.

"Yes, it is," said Captain Ross, equally curt, and silently thanking
the fates that her ladyship was going home for the last time.

"How horrible!" she gasped, in unaffected alarm. This return to
femininity soothed the sailor's ruffled temper.

Sir John, her husband, frowned judicially. That frown constituted his
legal stock-in-trade, yet it passed current for wisdom with the Hong
Kong bar.

"What evidence have you?" he asked.

"Do tell us," chimed in Iris, delightfully unconscious of interrupting
the court. "Did you find out when you squinted at the sun?"

The captain smiled. "You are nearer the mark than possibly you imagine,
Miss Deane," he said. "When we took our observations yesterday there
was a very weird-looking halo around the sun. This morning you may have
noticed several light squalls and a smooth sea marked occasionally by
strong ripples. The barometer is falling rapidly, and I expect that, as
the day wears, we will encounter a heavy swell. If the sky looks wild
tonight, and especially if we observe a heavy bank of cloud approaching
from the north-west, you see the crockery dancing about the table at
dinner. I am afraid you are not a good sailor, Lady Tozer. Are you,
Miss Deane?"

"Capital! I should just love to see a real storm. Now promise me