me, as I was afraid he would--for having brought along such a lot of
quinine. Indeed, the quinine seemed to make a good deal of an
impression on him, for he turned to the mate and said: "Do you hear
that, George? Mr. Stetworth has with him a whole case of
quinine--enough to serve a ship's company through a cruise." And the
mate rumbled out, as he got up from the table and started for the
deck, that quinine was a damned good thing.

We waited below until the second mate came down, to whom the captain
introduced me with his regular formula: "Mr. Roger Stetworth, let me
make you acquainted with Mr. Martin Bowers." He was a young fellow, of
no more than my own age, and I took a fancy to him at sight--for he
not only shook my hand heartily but he looked me squarely in the eyes,
and that is a thing I like a man to do. It seemed to me that my being
there was a good deal of a puzzle to him; and he also took my measure,
but quite frankly--telling me when he had looked me over that if I
knew how to steer I'd be a good man to have at the wheel in a gale.

The captain brought out a bottle of his favorite arrack, and he and I
had a glass together--in which, as I thought rather hard, Bowers was
not given a chance to join us--and then we went on deck and walked up
and down for a while, smoking our pipes and talking about the weather
and the prospects for the voyage. And it all went so easily and so
pleasantly that I couldn't help laughing a little to myself over
my scare.

I turned in early, for I was pretty well tired after so lively a day;
but when I got into my bunk I could not get to sleep for a long
while--although the bunk was a good one and the easy motion of the
brig lulled me--for the excitement I was in because my voyage fairly