Presently the captain stepped out on the hurricane deck; next the chief mate appeared; then a clerk.

Every moment or two a straggler was added to my audience; and before I got to the head of the island I had fifteen or twenty people assembled down there under my nose.

I began to wonder what the trouble was.

As I started across, the captain glanced aloft at me and said, with a sham uneasiness in his voice-- 'Where is Mr.Bixby ?' 'Gone below, sir.' But that did the business for me.

My imagination began to construct dangers out of nothing, and they multiplied faster than I could keep the run of them.