“But whence came the words? and why do you bear those names, thus written indelibly in the skin?  Patience, men! monsters! demons!  Would ye deprive the dying man of even a minute of that precious time which becomes so dear to all, as life is leaving us?”

“Give yet another minute!” said a deep voice from behind.

“Whence come the words, I ask?” again the chaplain demanded.

“They are neither more nor less than the manner in which a circumstance was logged, which is now of no consequence, seeing that the cruise is nearly up with all who are chiefly concerned.  The black spoke of the collar; but, then, he thought I might be staying in port, while he was drifting between heaven and earth, in search of his last moorings.”

“Is there aught, here, that I should know?” interrupted the eager, tremulous voice of Mrs Wyllys.  “O Merton! why these questions?  Has my yearning been prophetic?  Does nature give so mysterious a warning of its claim!”

“Hush, dearest Madam! your thoughts wander from probabilities, and my faculties become confused.—­’Ark, of Lynnhaven,’ was the name of an estate in the islands, belonging to a near and dear friend, and it was the place where I received, and whence I sent to the main, the precious trust you confided to my care.  But”——­

“Say on!” exclaimed the lady, rushing madly in front of Wilder, and seizing the cord which, a moment before, had been tightened nearly to his destruction stripping it from his throat, with a sort of supernatural dexterity:  “It was not, then, the name of a ship?”

“A ship! surely not.  But what mean these hopes?—­these fears?”

“The collar? the collar? speak; what of that collar?”

“It means no great things, now, my Lady,” returned Fid, very coolly placing himself in the same condition as Wilder, by profiting by the liberty of his arms, and loosening his own neck from the halter, notwithstanding a movement made by some of the people to prevent it, which was, however, staid by a look from their leader’s eyes.  “I will first cast loose this here rope; seeing that it is neither decent, nor safe, for an ignorant man, like me, to enter into such unknown navigation, a-head of his officer.  The collar was just the necklace of the dog, which is here to be seen on the arm of poor Guinea, who was, in most respects, a man for whose equal one might long look in vain.”

“Read it,” said the governess, a film passing before her own eyes; “read it,” she added, motioning, with a quivering hand, to the divine to peruse the inscription, that was distinctly legible on the plate of brass.

“Holy Dispenser of good! what is this I see?  ’Neptune, the property of Paul de Lacey!’”

A loud cry burst from the lips of the governess; her hands were clasped one single instant upward, in that thanksgiving which oppressed her soul, and then, as recollection returned, Wilder was pressed fondly, frantickly to her bosom, while her voice was neard to say, in the piercing tones of all-powerful nature,—­