A soft, purling sound came from over the side where the waves lapped against the steel hull.

A shovel grated stridently now and then in the fire room, and occasionally a block rattled or a halliard flapped against the foremast overhead.

The surroundings and the strange, weird "feel" of the darkness were peculiarly impressive.
"I don't know whether we care to hear any story," observed "Hay." "Better keep it until later, 'Stump.' The night's too wonderful to do anything except lounge around and think.

Whew! isn't it dark ?" "This story I was going to tell you requires a setting like this," replied "Stump." "It is about a ship that started from England years and years ago.

She had as passengers a lot of lunatics who were to be experimented upon by a doctor about as crazy as they.