at such a pitch that the flooring seemed to go out from under me and
I hustled helplessly down the incline. I missed a frantic clutch at
the newel-post, flung up my arm in time to save my face, and, most
fortunately, whirled half about, and, still falling, impacted with my
shoulder muscle-pad on Captain West's door.

Youth will have its way. So will a ship in a sea. And so will a
hundred and seventy pounds of a man. The beautiful hardwood door-
panel splintered, the latch fetched away, and I broke the nails of
the four fingers of my right hand in a futile grab at the flying
door, marring the polished surface with four parallel scratches. I
kept right on, erupting into Captain West's spacious room with the
big brass bed.

Miss West, swathed in a woollen dressing-gown, her eyes heavy still
with sleep, her hair glorious and for the once ungroomed, clinging in
the doorway that gave entrance on the main cabin, met my startled
gaze with an equally startled gaze.

It was no time for apologies. I kept right on my mad way, caught the
foot stanchion, and was whipped around in half a circle flat upon
Captain West's brass bed.

Miss West was beginning to laugh.

"Come right in," she gurgled.

A score of retorts, all deliciously inadvisable, tickled my tongue,
so I said nothing, contenting myself with holding on with my left
hand while I nursed my stinging right hand under my arm-pit. Beyond