ghorawallahs; and as he had no desire to lower his own servant in the estimation of his fellows, he readily assented to the usefulness of Sooka's suggestion. Shortly afterwards he retired to his own cabin; and soon, save for the occasional hoarse calls of the watch, all was quiet on the good ship Mermaid.

Three or four days had elapsed after the events noted above, and still the same unusually calm weather prevailed to the great disgust, not only of Captain Dasher, but of every one on board, save perhaps the ghorawallahs, who could hardly be credited with any desire for colder or rougher days than those they now enjoyed.

"I say, Captain Blunt, did you hear that row amongst your nags last night?" asked the skipper one morning about 6 a.m., when Blunt poked his head up over the companion ladder, before having his bath, just to see how things were on deck.

"Row? No. What was it?"

"I don't know, I'm sure; but just about midnight, and again after the mid-watch was relieved, the beasts set to squealing and kicking like mad-never heard such a din-far worse than it was before."

"Jove! that's strange. I must inquire into it. Sooka, Sooka! Pass the word for Sooka, there!"

Little Bedwin, the midshipman of the watch,

screeched down the hatchway as loudly as his shrill treble voice could manage, and soon had the head ghorawallah on deck. In answer to Captain Blunt, the man hung his head; then he rubbed the palms of his hands hard against one another; and ultimately he declared that he had heard the disturbance on both occasions, had got to his horses as soon as possible, but could not at all account for their conduct-he found everything right with them. After some further questions to Duberry and the other ghorawallahs, who by this time had come round to hear 'what the Captain Sahib had to say about the bobbery,' Captain Blunt could gain no other particulars, and felt satisfied that the disturbance had been commenced by some horse not perhaps quite comfortable; when, of course, as is usual, the others had been infected with a desire to make the same noise, and hence the result. He gave orders that the greatest care should be taken the ensuing night that each individual animal should be made as comfortable as possible, and the affair then went out of his thoughts. Sooka, however, did not leave the matter quite so easily. He knew that the horses had been, beyond question, most carefully attended to the night before; he could see no possible reason for supposing that any one of them had been unwell; and he thought there was some trickery at the bottom of

the affair that boded him no good, and must be found out if he wished to preserve his character as a firstclass ghorawallah. The jealousy Duberry was so unable to conceal at once recurred to his mind; he conned over many things that had lately occurred in connection with his duties; and he came to the conclusion that his subordinate was playing tricks with the animals.

M

CHAPTER III.

A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.

ATTERS got worse instead of better with the

horses on the Mermaid. For a night or two they would be perfectly quiet; then all of a sudden they would break out into a wild fit of seeming rebellion, and the row in their floating stable be something awful to listen to; and yet when lights were procured, nothing could be found amiss to account for the emeute. Captain Blunt went himself several times, but could find no reason for the occurrence; and he began to think that the ship must be swarming with rats (though Captain Dasher declared there was not one on board) which frightened his horses by running over their backs. Unfortunately, he had not sufficient ghorawallahs on board to enable him to have

a regular night-watch, but he made one of them sleep amidst the stalls in turns. This, however, was also without tangible effect; and the Captain at last began to have serious doubts in the skill of Sooka, and sometimes even in the man's probity.

One morning he was roused out of his slumber by the little midshipman, Bedwin, who came flying into his cabin with the news that some of the horses had broken loose, and were kicking themselves to pieces down below. Instantly he descended to the lower deck, where, sure enough, he found some six or seven horses floundering about, with their headropes gnawed through, and every appearance of great fright in the bearing of the animals. They were at once secured. An examination disclosed the fact that they had really injured themselves, and some of their companions too, in their terror at finding themselves staggering freely about the decks; and poor Sooka was almost in despair at the catastrophe. Every possible inquiry was made of the men and officers of the night-watches; but they could give no information save that they heard the horses break loose almost simultaneously, and were afraid to go down amongst the kicking and plunging brutes, out of respect for the safety of their limbs. There could be no suspicion of foul play, for the halters had, from their abraded appearance, evi

dently been bitten through; besides which, the animals were just those who were naturally the wildest and of the hottest blood. To make matters worse, the Mermaid suddenly found herself, one fearfully dark night, caught in the south-west monsoon, which seemed to rage with redoubled violence as if to make up for its long delay in coming and the previous calm; and the confusion at nights on the lower deck became positively awful. Many of the horses were injured,—two or three of them severely; and Captain Blunt, now out of all patience with Sooka, who professed himself quite unable to manage things better, was just on the point of deposing him in favour of Duberry, when a circumstance came to his knowledge with the effect of staying his intention a little longer; with, however, a full determination, that if matters did not mend by a certain date, his duty would compel him to take the step he threatened.

One evening the gale raged with great violence, but as it blew steadily from one point, and on attaining to a certain pitch about eight o'clock p.m. remained at that degree all through the rest of the night, there had been no need to call all hands to assist the watches to shorten sail since the ship had been made 'all snug.' In the watch from eight p.m. to midnight, an unusual number of horses had broken loose and were playing