A long coat, a Tam o' Shanter, and a pair of list slippers will go far in the way of costume at night in the tropics, and the _Andromeda's_ seventeenth day at sea had brought the equator very near.

At dinner on the previous evening--in honor of the owner's niece fashionable hours were observed for meals--Mr.Watts mentioned, by chance, that the Cross had been very distinct during the middle watch, or, in other words, between midnight and 4 a.m.

Iris at once expressed a wish to see it, and Captain Coke offered a suggestion.
"Mr.Hozier takes the middle watch to-night," said he.

"We can ax 'im to send a man to pound on your door as soon as it rises.

Then you must run up to the bridge, an' 'e'll tell you all about it." If Iris was conscious of a slight feeling of surprise, she did not show it.