along the bulwarks, only added to the puzzlement of all on board. The only person who could have solved the matter chose to remain silent. And a secret it remains to this day for all on board the Hibernia, with the exception of two fellow-passengers who were let into it later during the voyage, and a third-myself who shared it some months afterwards.

I have often resented never being told how rabbits are produced from top hats, or packs of cards dwindle before my very eyes to nothing, or billiard balls are exuded from the conjurer's anatomy. I think it very mean and petty on the conjurer's part. I shall not follow his example, but set forth here in the words of the mystery man just exactly what happened and how it happened. He desires his identity to remain undiscovered, so I will call him William; and the following are ipsissima verba of William on the matter.

We were coming up the Red Sea," continued William, 66 on a fearfully hot night, following breeze, not a breath stirring on board, and all that. A regular bender of a night. I had never spoken to her, but I had noticed her at mealtimes and sometimes on deck. Well, it was nearing bed-time, about half-past nine, the time they let one on deck in pyjamas. I had found a nice place by the rail for my mattress, where there was a little draught of air, and I was longing for the

bell to strike so as to go below and get out of my clothes. On the deck above me they were dancing in spite of the heat. I wondered how they managed to do it. I was leaning over the rail, looking down at the water sliding past and longing to jump in and get cool.

"Just at that moment there came a hail from above methe bridge, I thought. I wasn't very interested in it, and yet listened again for it. It came again, much louder and clearer this time. Man overboard!' The cry came so pat upon my longing for a plunge, it might have been an answer to a prayer, or a direct incitement by Providence to do the very thing I wanted to. "A life-buoy hung at my knee. I lifted it from its hooks, clasped it tight, and went over the top. I had jumped and was half-way there when I thought of sharks. I was still thinking of them when I hit the Red Sea. I didn't go far under, owing to the buoy. I came to the surface within a few feet of the great wall of sliding hull. Sharks vanished from my mind: another subject took their place -propeller blades. In the docks at the port of embarkation I had noticed a large board hanging to the ship's quarter. On it ran the legend, Beware of the twin-screws.' At the time this did not seem to concern me. It did so now, however. All this in a flash. I kicked out lustily with my

legs, so as to get a little away from the ship. The roar of waters, mightily threshed, grew momentarily fiercer. It had in it the boom of a great millwheel, but a hundred times its fierceness. Now for it! I clutched and twined round my buoy; and then a cleaving smashing rush-no words can describe the awful sound a propeller blade makes so near one's ear, and that danger was over. I was now in the maelstrom. A 15,000-ton ship driven at speed through water leaves a considerable pother behind her. I was drawn into this. The fun was sharp, but luckily short. I was buffeted, sucked down, thrown up, boxed this way and that. My breath held. I still clutched my buoy, and at length once more floated clear on smooth but still hissing water, very very phosphorescent. Then the hiss died down, the sparks died out, and I looked my last at the Hibernia, for the darkness just then swallowed her at one gulp. Darkness hid the sky, the horizon, the water about me. I might have been floating in space, and there was nothing even to feel, for the sea was just about the temperature of my body, and I didn't even feel wet. It did seem a little odd to be watching a departing ship from the Red Sea instead of vice versa. There was a long oily swell : I could feel the slow and gentle rhythm of it.

"Remembering, however, what I was there for, I let out a yell as soon as I had

breath to do so. It seemed a foolish futile thing to expect to find any one in that thick darkness, and I was the more surprised when I was answered and from quite close by a feeble but unmistakably human pipe. Towards it I urged my life-buoy, and presently felt it tilt and dip as an unseen hand laid hold of it. I told the hand to get its owner inside the buoy as soon as possible. To this came snuffling response, but no action. I had made up my mind that I was dealing with one of the Lascar crew. I was unwilling to be grappled by him, so, keeping the buoy between us, I slid my hand round its circumference, felt another hand, passed on warily up an arm, meeting two or three bangles and a wrist-watch en route, felt a neck and a necklace, and wandered farther into hair and several combs. Seizing the hair, I dipped the head under water, brought it up inside the buoy, pulled the arms up, hung them outside, and made all snug. There was no opposition. But when the spluttering was done, a woman's voice said, 'Oh, you did hurt my head.' I apologised and explained.

There was no rejoinder. We were both rather full of Red Sea and short of breath.

"Presently a drowsy voice

'As a present-yes,' came the voice-that of rather an acid sleep-talker.

"Sharks-I had forgotten about them. They recurred again. I wished they hadn't. I felt that my legs dangled a great deal more than desirable. I wished I could curl them up out of harm's way round my neck. Did they-sharks, not legs-always follow ships continuously in the Red Sea Or did they just give them a look-in occasionally? I recollected seeing a dead horse dropped overboard in these waters. The sharks had him before we had left him a hundred yards astern. A nasty sight, all dorsal fins and foam and blood. True, there had True, there had been none visible about us as we lay in Aden harbour two days ago, and lots of little boys were diving for pennies. Some one had said that one of them had been taken not long before, leg bitten clean off, and in Suez sharks were always to be be seen cruising round every ship, and were caught sometimes. No-on the whole these reflections were not comfortable. Again, could one hear a shark coming, or did he just take your leg off without any warning? Better, anyway,

to be taken kicking than passive, so I pulled up my legs and kicked. But that's tiring work.

"The sleep-talker resumed"You're making a lot of noise. D'you want a crowd to collect?'

"I was rather trying to keep the crowd away,' I replied. "I can't see any one about,' she continued rather testily. I can't see anything. Not even you. Who are you?'

"From the Hibernia. Who are you?' I said. "I'm not anybody. Nor are you. We died a short time ago. I don't know exactly how long ago and I don't know how I died.'

"People don't,' I replied. 'The survivors know, of course. But who were you then?

"I was Mary Seton. I sat next my aunt, Aunt Amy, you know, and she sat next the captain. Perhaps you noticed us?'

"Now how had Mary Seton come to tumble overboard? Most certainly I had noticed her every one did-and a less headlong type of beauty I could not have conceived. And her aunt was noticeable tooa Madonna-like person, very composed. Poor aunt - how was her composure standing it now?

"Also of Mary Monica,' burbled on the quiet sleepy voice at my elbow, ' only daughter of the above, who died at sea, aged 19 years and 10 months-that's how Aunt Amy will have it put up.'