CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. LOVE ON THE OCEAN
CHAPTER II. THE MYSTERIOUS CARGO
CHAPTER III. TO THE WATER'S EDGE
CHAPTER IV. THE SILENT SEA
CHAPTER V. MY REWARD
CHAPTER VI. THE SOLE SURVIVOR
CHAPTER VII. I FIND A FRIEND
CHAPTER VIII. A SMALL PRECAUTION
CHAPTER IX. MY CONVALESCENT HOME
CHAPTER X. WINE AND WEAKNESS
CHAPTER XI. I LIVE AGAIN
CHAPTER XII. MY LADY'S BIDDING
CHAPTER XIII. THE LONGEST DAY OF MY LIFE
CHAPTER XIV. IN THE GARDEN
CHAPTER XV. FIRST BLOOD
CHAPTER XVI. A DEADLOCK
CHAPTER XVII. THIEVES FALL OUT
CHAPTER XVIII. A MAN OF MANY MURDERS
CHAPTER XIX. MY GREAT HOUR
CHAPTER XX. THE STATEMENT OF FRANCIS RATTRAY
Nothing is so easy as falling in love on a long sea voyage, except falling out of love. Especially was this the case in the days when the wooden clippers did finely to land you in Sydney or in Melbourne under the four full months. We all saw far too much of each other, unless, indeed, we were to see still more. Our superficial attractions mutually exhausted, we lost heart and patience in the disappointing strata which lie between the surface and the bed-rock of most natures. My own experience was confined to the round voyage of the Lady Jermyn, in the year 1853. It was no common experience, as was only too well known at the time. And I may add that I for my part had not the faintest intention of falling in love on board; nay, after all these years, let me confess that I had good cause to hold myself proof against such weakness. Yet we carried a young lady, coming home, who, God knows, might have made short work of many a better man!
Eva Denison was her name, and she cannot have been more than nineteen years of age. I remember her telling me that she had not yet come out, the very first time I assisted her to promenade the poop. My own name was still unknown to her, and yet I recollect being quite fascinated by her frankness and self-possession. She was exquisitely young, and yet ludicrously old for her years; had been admirably educated, chiefly abroad, and, as we were soon t