in front of the ship, and a deputation of passengers now came to the man
at the wheel to demand that she be put about, or she would run into
them, which the spokesman explained would be unusual. I thought at the
time that it certainly was not the regular thing to do, but, as I was
myself only a passenger, did not deem it expedient to take a part in the
heated discussion that ensued; and, after all, it did not seem likely
that the weather in those clouds would be much worse than that in
Tottenham Court Road, where I had an aunt.

It was finally decided to refer the matter to arbitration, and after
many names had been submitted and rejected by both sides, it was agreed
that the captain of the ship should act as arbitrator if his consent
could be obtained, and I was delegated to conduct the negotiations to
that end. With considerable difficulty, I persuaded him to accept the
responsibility.

He was a feeble-minded sort of fellow named Troutbeck, who was always in
a funk lest he should make enemies; never reflecting that most men would
a little rather be his enemies than not. He had once been the ship's
cook, but had cooked so poisonously ill that he had been forcibly
transferred from galley to quarter-deck by the dyspeptic survivors of
his culinary career.

The little captain went aft with me to listen to arguments of the
dissatisfied passengers and the obstinate steersman, as to whether we
should take our chances in the clouds, or tail off and run for the
opposite horizon; but on approaching the wheel, we found both helmsman
and passengers in a condition of profound astonishment, rolling their
eyes about towards every point of the compass, and shaking their heads
in hopeless perplexity. It was rather remarkable, certainly: the bank of