irritably, "but just at the present moment I am more interested in
what is going on in my ship. I begin to believe that Mr. Crawshay's
voyage through the air wasn't altogether a piece of bravado,
after all."

The purser smiled a little incredulously. "He sent round this evening
to know if I could lend him some flannel pyjamas," he said,--"says all
the things that have been collected together for him are too thin.
That man makes me tired, sir."

"He makes me wonder."

"How's that, sir?"

"Because I can't size him up," the captain declared. "There isn't a
soul on board who isn't laughing at him and saying what a sissy he is.
They say he has smuggled an extra lifebelt into his cabin, and spends
half his time being seasick and the other half looking out for
submarines."

"That's the sort of fellow he seems to me, anyway," the purser
observed.

"I can't say that I've quite made up my mind," the captain pronounced.
"I suppose you know, Dix, that he was connected with the Secret
Service at the English Embassy?"

"I didn't know it," Dix replied, "but if he has been, Lord help us! No
wonder the Germans have got ahead of us every time!"