The steam call to the boatswain is so common a sound on a steamship as to generally pass unnoticed. This call affected another besides the boatswain. A little night-gowned figure arose from an under berth in a saloon stateroom, and, with wide-open, staring eyes, groped its way to the deck, unobserved by the watchman. The white, bare little feet felt no cold as they pattered the planks of the deserted promenade, and the little figure had reached the steerage entrance by the time the captain and boatswain had reached the bridge.

“And they talk,” went on Rowland, as the three watched and listened; “of the wonderful love and care of a merciful God, who controls all things—who has given me my defects, and my capacity for loving, and then placed Myra Gaunt in my way. Is there mercy to me in this? As part of a great evolutionary principle, which develops the race life at the expense of the individual, it might be consistent with the idea of a God—a first cause. But does the individual who perishes, because unfitted to survive, owe any love, or gratitude to this God? He does not! On the supposition that He exists, I deny it! And on the complete lack of evidence that He does exist, I affirm to myself the integrity of cause and effect—which is enough to explain the Universe, and me. A merciful God—a kind, loving, just, and merciful God —” he burst into a fit of incongruous laughter, which stopped short as he clapped his hands to his stomach and then to his head. “What ails me?” he gasped; “I feel as though I had swallowed hot coals—and my head—and my eyes—I can’t see.” The pain left him in a moment and the laughter returned. “What’s wrong with the starboard anchor? It’s moving. It’s changing It’s a—what? What on earth is it? On end—and the windlass—and the spare anchors—and the davits—all alive—all moving.”