U THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



light he turned three somersaults on my prostrate 

 form, concluding the performance by scaling the 

 life-preserver rack and from that eminence hurl- 

 ing himself at my head. 



Feeling gloomily Shakespearean, I informed him 

 that he had murdered sleep, and hurriedly dressed, 

 with a wary eye on him and the more perishable 

 articles in the cabin. He is living proof of the 

 prestidigitator's boast that the hand is quicker than 

 the eye, and with three snatches he can irremediably 

 wreck as many objects. To the accompaniment of 

 his protesting shrieks, I returned him to his prison, 

 repaired the hole through which he had escaped, 

 and descended to the main deck for a half -hour o^ 

 work in the laboratory before breakfast. 



On this, as on previous days, early morning 

 found the ship wallowing through the endless pro- 

 cession of great surges which rolled tirelessly up 

 from the south. Only thin streamers of weed, 

 sometimes extending for a mile or two, undulated 

 over the leaden sea. The use of the intricate deck 

 machinery which operates our diversified gear was 

 complicated still further by the incessant and vio- 

 lent motion of the vessel. We had become experts 

 in balancing and, at a preliminary cost of a good 

 deal of breakage, in knowing just how far we could 

 roll before laboratory equipment suffered a sea- 

 change into something new and strange in the way 

 of wreckage. 



Some of the scenes in the laboratory during those 

 first stormy days defy description. An agonized 

 scientist, caught unawares by a particularly vicious 



