tions to the man at the wheel. All day long Captain Punch was in a towering passion. He said that he knew the ship's whereabouts as surely as though Table Bay lay open before him, that Parfitt was out by leagues, and Wilson utterly wrong, that both men might thank God that he was too much afflicted to occupy his proper post on deck in such damp and filthy weather, or—and here he would shake his immense gouty fist at the skylight and bid his servant step on deck and ascertain how the ship's head was, and then on learning that the course which he had ordered Parfitt and Wilson to steer had been changed by one or the other of them he would roar out like a bull, using many strong and terrible words, once even going to the length of threatening to take Captain Parfitt's life if he interfered with his orders to the helmsman.
When I went to bed that night I was unable to sleep for some time owing to the argument which the three captains were holding in their cabin. I could hear such exclamations as, "My life's as precious to me as yourn is to you"; "North-east, d'ye say! Good angels! And yet they granted ye a certificate?" "If the chronometers are out that's not my fault, but if my calculations wasn't within a second of the right spot afore this blooming muck drawed up and hid the sky I'll give up, own that I'm no sailor man, and I'll call ye both my masters."
To such stuff as this I lay listening; then I heard some sailors come below to cart old Captain Punch away to bed.
There was an interval of agreeable silence and I fell asleep.
I was awakened by an uproar on deck, by the shouts of men, the bawling of Captain Punch in his cabin, by a hurry of footsteps and a sullen flapping of canvas. The ship lay over at a sharp angle; I believed at first that a heavy squall had burst upon her and heeled her down, but she lay perfectly motionless, with a singular noise of creaking threading the above-board clamour and a frequent, dull, thunderous thump as of water striking her.
In a moment I realised that the ship was ashore!
"It was Captain Punch."
I partially clothed myself in a few minutes, rushed out, and with great difficulty, so acute was the angle of the ship's deck, reached the companion steps. All was in darkness. I put out my hands and touched a figure, and now grew sensible of somebody just in front of me panting heavily, and from time to time groaning. It was Captain Punch, in whom the agony and helplessness of the gout had been temporarily conquered by wrath and terror. He reached the deck unaided and fell a-roaring. There was little to be seen. Here and there a man held a lantern, but the light was feeble and the illumination merely confused the sight. The ship lay over with her broadside to the sea; the dark heave of swell burst against the bilge and recoiled in milk that flung a dim sheen upon the atmosphere of the night, making the quietly flapping sails glance out. It was very thick; there was nothing of the land to be seen. The carpenter was sounding over the side, and I heard him bawl out the depth, but there was no depth. The Biddy McDougal was hard and fast upon
