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A SECRET OF THE SEA


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“ Her lights are all right, but there’s no one steering her
It’s the queerest sight I ever saw ”


A
SECRET OF THE SEA‘


BY
WILLIAM ALLISON
_f,__#.7 __h-_._


FRONTISPIBCE BY
RUDOLPH F. TANDLER


VC
GARDEN CITY NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1920
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DOUBLEDAY, PAGE 8: COMPANY
All right: rnzr'ved, induding that of
tramlalian into farm-g1: languagev,
induding 1/1: Smudinarvian.


"'I*\
192';
MARI
CHAPTER
II
III
IV
VI
VII
VIII
IX
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XX
XXI
F
CONTENTS
WHAT THE MOON SAW . . . .
THE SPELL 0F SILENCE .
ONLY A PACKING CASE .
UNDER THE CRIMSON RUG .
THE BROKEN CAGE .
WHAT THE WATCH HELD .
WHAT KNIGHT FOUND UNDER THE TABLE
WAs HE ON THE TRACK? .
THE SOUND BEHIND THE DOOR
THE WOMAN IN THE LUGGAGE BOAT .
THE TOPAZ .
THE BELL-DANCER .
A NEW MYSTERY
A FIGURE IN A CLOAK . . .
THE BRINGER OF A LETTER
THE BEGINNING OF THE TEST .
CHECK To YOUR KING!
WHAT THE BELL-DANCER GAVE To BETTY
THE HOUSE WITH THE COURTYARD
WHERE WAs PETER?
WHAT DOEs MONSIEUR MEAN To Do?
PAGE
19
25
38
47
57
67
76
86
95
. 105
. 115
. 125
- I34>
- I43
. I53
. I62
I71
. 182
. 191
A ~— —_-.-..-U-—- -


CON TENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
THE MIRROR WITH THE SANDALWOOD
FRAME . . . . . . . . . 210
XXIII WHEN THE ELECTRIC LIGHT FAILED . . 219
XXIV THE WOMAN OF THE PHOTOGRAPH . . 23o
XXV A CRY IN THE DARKNEss . . . . . 242
XXVI BY WHOSE HAND? . . . . . . 25o
XXVII THE SECRET PLACE ABOVE THE WARDROBE 259
XXVIII “THE KNIGHT COUNTS FOR SOMETHING” 268
XXIX BEHIND THE HIGH WHITE WALLS . . 277
XXX THE FIGHT IN THE STATEROOM . . . 286
XXXI A FEW WORDS IN THE MARKET PLACE . 296
XXXII THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY . . . 307


A SECRET OF THE SEA


4. d SECRET OF THE SEA
tic, like spirit-drapery. Her arms and bare neck
gleamed ivory-pale. She was very fair to see by
moonlight, and she could not help knowing it. No
girl could. But there was no one to see, and Betty
sighed. As she sighed, she thought that she heard
a step on the deck behind her. Her pretty shoulders
gave a just perceptible start, but she did not turn.
On the contrary, every line of her slim young body
expressed abandonment to the worship of Nature.
Far away, to the right, the shadowy, lion-shape of
Gibraltar crouched on the horizon. In front, far-
ther still, billowed the tumbled mountains of the
African coast.
“ Miss Manners, your father has sent me up with
your cloak. You forgot it, and he is afraid that you
will take a chill,” spoke a voice, whose accent un-
mistakably said “ Oxford.”
“ Oh, you quite startled mel ” exclaimed Betty.
“ I didn’t expect to see you or Dad for ages. It’s
very nice of you to bring me the cloak, especially as
it’s only Dad who is afraid I shall take a chill. You
wouldn’t have thought of it, if it hadn’t been for
him.”
“ Wouldn’t I? ”
Betty turned fully now, leaning her arm on the
rail, and looked up at him. She was not a short
girl; most people, men especially, considered her ex-
actly the right height; and yet she had to look up a
long way to meet Peter Knight’s eyes. Somehow,
__ _-__--


WHAT THE MOON SAW 5
she liked this, and also a very interesting expression
in his eyes, which accompanied the two non-commit-
tal words. Betty thought she could read its mean-
ing, but was not sure, and to think things always,
yet never to be sure, was irritating to such an all-
conquering maiden as she.
“'You know you wouldn’t. You are very unkind
to me,” she cried.
“ I unkind to you? Good Heavens! "
“ No man was ever so unkind to me before,” she
said, and her voice quivered. “I am so lonely on
board this yacht. I didn’t want to come, but Dad
made me, because he thought I was looking pale, and
the sea would do me good. I’m so homesick, and
unhappy. And — it’s your fault.”
“ Miss Manners! ”
“ It is. There are only you and Dad to speak to.
At ﬁrst, you were good and nice; you were always
doing something kind for me. I wasn’t lonely at all.
But lately, for a whole week at least, you’ve been
quite different. Nobody else ever came so near to
saying straight out that I‘m stupid, and bad com-
pany. You may pretend that your time is occupied
with Dad, but he’s taking a holiday. He doesn’t
want to work all day, or want you to work. Yet you
would rather work than be bored by talking to me."
“ Bored! But you don’t mean it. You must
know ———-”
“ Know what? ” As she spoke, the girl inclined


6 A SECRET OF THE s54
her white shoulders to the ﬁlmy blue cloak the young
man still mechanically held out. As she did so,
breaking the pause he made with her question, she
looked up into his face again. Hers was raised a
little, and the sheen of the rising moon touched its
childish beauty like a caress. Her gray eyes, with
their upward-curved, black lashes, were dark and
wistful; her lips were like fallen rose-leaves on the
soft pallor of her lovely face, and the rising moon
burnished the crested ripples of her hair to gold.
The man would not have been a man and young
if he had not lost his head. Not only did he lose
his head, but all recollection of the wise maxims
which he had impressed upon himself during the last
fortnight. ‘
“ You know that I love you—love you—love
you! "
“ Oh, I didn’t know! ”
“ \Vell, you know now; and I’m a regular sweep
as well as a fool to tell you. You are a beauty and
a great heiress. I’m a nameless n-obody, and your
father‘s secretary.”
“ You’re not nobody. You’re everybody.”
“ And there’s all the world between us.”
“ There’s just nothing at all between us —— I mean,
to keep us apart— unless you choose.”
“ My darling—my beautiful girl! ”
“ Stop! ” exclaimed a voice behind them. “ This
is the way you abuse my trust, is it, Knight—to


WHAT THE MOON SAW 7
make love to my daughter when my back’s turned,
eh? ”
Peter was shocked into silence. He had made
love to her. He could not deny it. Even had it
occurred to him, he could not, with Adam, have
pleaded: “ The woman tempted me.” But his
dumbness lasted only a few seconds, which seemed
long to him.
“I lost my head, sir,” he said, when those sec-
onds had ticked themselves out in his brain. “ I did
not mean to be dishonourable. I do love Miss
h'lanners. No man could help it, I think. But I
know well enough that I had no right to let her see
it."
“ To let her hear it.”
“ Or to let her hear it."
“If he hadn’t, I should certainly have jumped
overboard—0r something,” said Betty. “I love
him, too -— awfully. I thought he loved me, and I
was dying to ﬁnd out. I couldn’t sleep or eat. I
made him tell me. It wasn’t his fault at all.”
“ Betty, go below,” said her father.
“ Dad, I simply won’t,” returned the millionaire’s
daughter.
Nevertheless she did. For John Manners’s eyes
were of a different gray from little Betty’s, and at
times they could be terrible. She went below to her
cabin, but not to cry, though at first she fully in-
tended to cry a good deal.


8 A SECRET OF THE SEA
“ Dear, handsome boy! ” she apostrophized Peter
Knight; as she had apostrophized the moon.
“ You’re the only man on earth, and somehow—I
don't know a bit how—you shall have me, and I
shall have you.”
Peter Knight had not her conﬁdence in the fu-
ture. He wanted the girl more than anything else
in this world, and he had been lifted to a region
above the world by the things she had said to him.
But he was down again now, deeper in the depths
than ever, by way of contrast; for to have tasted
the cup and then to have it dashed away just as the
exquisite ﬂavour touched his lips, was worse than
never having tasted or dared hope to taste it. To
have Betty’s love for a week, or a day, it seemed to
him that he would be content to live for the rest of
his life in darkness, with only memory to brighten
the gloom. But unless he did something dishon-
ourable—perhaps tried to steal the little heir-
ess away from her father—he did not see how it
would be possible to have her love or her-
self; and he would not do that even for love of
Betty.
“You’re a fool to love my daughter, Knight,”
said Manners, when the two men were alone.
“ I can’t agree with you there, sir,” answered the
young man, in the delightful voice which contrasted
agreeably with the millionaire’s somewhat harsh
tones.


WHAT THE MOON SAW 9
“ To make love to her, then, if you like that bet-
ter. I'm genuinely sorry that this has happened. I
believed I could trust you. You’re nothing very
wonderful, you know, though you’re a clever enough
young fellow and a pleasant companion. As a sec-
retary, you’ve been, up to now, eminently satisfac-
tory; but you must have a good opinion of yourself
to have supposed that you would suit me as a son-
in-law. I might let Betty take a husband without a
penny or prospects, but he would have to be a genius
to persuade me.”
“ If I had been born a genius, then, I might have
hoped?” retorted Knight.
“ If you’d been born with a kind of genius that
could be useful to me.”
“ How do you know I haven’t, sir? ”
“I’ve never seen any signs of it. Of course you
understand that, though I’m sorry to part with you,
you’ll have to go.”
“I had made up my mind to resign my post.
But ”— suddenly the young man grew doggedly de-
termined to persevere on a course which ﬁve min-
utes before he had regarded as “ no thoroughfare”
—“ but I have not made up my mind to resign all
hope of Miss Manners.”
“ The devil you haven’t! And you tell me so to
my face? ”
“Because I don’t intend to do anything behind
your back. If I had money, or — the ‘ genius ’


IO _ A SECRET OF THE SEA
which could be useful to you, you wouldn’t object to
me as a son-in-law? ”
“ I don’t know that I should, except — you forget,
Knight, there’s one more obstacle.”
“I had forgotten, sir.” Knight’s brown, clear-
cut face ﬂushed, but the kindly moon bleached the
red signal of his shame. “ You mean the obstacle of
my birth.”
“ I’m sorry to hurt your feelings, but I do mean
that. Though I’m a true American, I should like
my daughter to marry a man who could go back at
least a generation or two. Not that I should hold
out for what you English call blue blood. I’m a
man of the people myself, and am not ashamed of
it. All the more credit to me, say I, to have arrived
where I am. Betty could have had an English earl
_ and a baronet, to my certain knowledge; but I let
her alone and she refused them. I believe that the
moustache of one, and the nose of the other, did not
please her. Well and good! She needn’t marry
against her own inclination, but she sha’n’t marry
against mine. She shall marry a rich man—or a
genius; and in either case, a man who knows who his
father was.”
“ None of which qualiﬁcations I ﬁll— at present.
But I love her; I shall always love her; and I shall
try for all I’m worth, sir, to ﬁll the three."
“ H’m! It looks as if it would take some time.
Meanwhile, we shall have to part. I can’t have any


WHAT THE MOON SAIV II
more philandering on this yacht between my daugh-
ter and my secretary.”
“There would be no more ‘ philandering,’ as you
call it, in any case. But you shall be rid of me, sir
—- for the present —at Tangier.”
“ No need to put it so harshly. It’s a great pity
this has happened. I’ve never had so good a secre-
tary, and at bridge, Knight— at bridge, I will say
you’re almost a genius. I shall miss you, and
Hullo, captain, that you? What is it? ”
“ Would you care to come up on the bridge, sir,
and look at a little craft that seems to be behaving
rather queerly? ” inquired the yacht's captain.
“ My ﬁrst ofﬁcer is in charge.”
“ Anything out of the common? ” asked Manners,
his shrewd, if somewhat heavy face waking into in-
terest.
“Well, yes, sir, it does seem to be something a
good deal out of the common.”
“Come along, then, Knight," said the owner of
the Naiad, apparently forgetting his annoyance.
“ Come along.”
The night was a night of May, warm, and ﬂooded
now with moonlight, bright as a spiritualized day.
They went up on the bridge, and saw straight
ahead a small but exquisitely proportioned sailing
yacht, looking, with every sail set, like a great white,
Wide-winged bird in the steel-bright path of the
moon.


12 A SECRET OF THE SEA
The yacht was running fast with a westerly wind,
every sail drawing, and under her cutwater foamed a
phosphorescent wave. Manners’s steam yacht was
steering southeastward for Tangier, and it seemed
that, if each craft held its course, their paths must
cross before many minutes.
“ Have a care, Jennings!” cried Manners, when
his quick eye had taken in the position. “ You’ll
run her down.”
“ Wait a moment, sir,” was the reply; and as the
captain spoke, the strange yacht suddenly changed
her course. She fell away from the wind, every sail
ﬂapping; the watchers could hear her timbers creak,
and the loose sheets ﬂog the deck. Then she turned
on her heel, shivered, and hanging awhile undeter-
mined, slanted ofi on another course, skimming
almost on her beam ends. This lasted but a few mo-
ments; for, changing her course again, she stood up
on an even keel, revolved slowly, caught the wind,
and came charging down upon the Naiad, only to
fall away once more when she was about a quarter
of a mile distant. Her manoeuvres seemed as aim-
less as those of a child’s boat upon a pond.
“ What the dickens is she at? ” demanded Man-
ners. “ She’s not tacking to get through the Straits,
for she has wind and current in her favour if she
wants to come into the Mediterranean. I can’t un-
derstand it.”
“ There’s one explanation, sir. Her lights are all


WHAT THE MOON SAW 13
right, but there’s no one steering her. Take this
glass, and tell me if you can see any one on deck.”
The owner of the N aiad looked long through the
telescope the captain handed him.
“ I can’t see a soul,” he announced at length.
“ But lights are blazing away in the saloon. There
must be madmen on board.”
“ Or something strange has happened,” said the
yacht’s captain, in a graver tone. “ It’s the queerest
sight ever I saw in good weather, and I’ve seen some
queer sights at sea.”
“ Can’t we hail her?” asked Manners.
“ It’s hardly safe, sir, to get within hailing dis-
tance of such a mad thing as that. She’s like a
chicken with its head cut off.”
“ You mean it would be actually dangerous?”
“A bit risky, at least, sir. I’m responsible for
the safety of yotJr yacht, and —”
“ My daughter’s aboard; but, by Jove, we’ll
chance the little risk! You’ll know how to dodge
the danger, captain. Let’s have out the speaking-
trumpet.”
“ As you will, sir,” said Captain Jennings.
He gave his orders. Steaming slowly, the N aiad
went nosing cautiously nearer to the great white,
ﬂapping, wounded bird, like a pointer after game.
Manners himself held out an eager hand for the
speaking-trumpet, and, putting it to his lips, shouted
out:


14 A SECRET OF THE SEA
“ Yacht ahoy! ”
They waited. There was no answer. The white
wings still ﬂapped an aimless deﬁance, and the mast-
head light dipped and rose. Manners shouted again
through the trumpet, in a voice of whose carrying
power he was proud. The night silence answered,
and the green and red sidelights of the mysterious
yacht blinked like wicked eyes.
“You’re right, Jennings,” said the millionaire,
“ something has happened. But what? What
could happen on such a night, with nothing more than
a stiff breeze? And we’ve had a week on end of
days like this.” '
“ There’s been strange work of some sort," an-
swered the captain. “ There must have been; but
I can’t for my life think what.”
“ I’m going to ﬁnd out,” Manners exclaimed.
“How, sir? It would be a dangerous job to try
and board her, while she’s ﬁuking about like that.”
“ Nevertheless, I must try. Hanged if I can
stand it not to know.”
“ May I go with you, sir?” asked Peter Knight.
The elder man threw a quick look at him.
“Yes,” he said, after a second’s pause. And then,
to the captain: “ If it’s as risky as you say, I don’t
want to order any of the crew into a boat ”
“ I’ll call for volunteers, sir,” suggested the cap-
tain. “You’ll ﬁnd that we’ll get more than are
wanted.”


WHAT THE MOON SAW I5
He was right, for no sooner did the men under-
stand what was afoot, than every one was keen to
have a hand in the game. All had seen and won-
dered at the strange sight, which had ﬁlled the more
superstitious among the crew with eerie fancies, and
brought to mind gruesome stories of sea apparitions,
which now, more than ever, they half believed to be
true. But curiosity got the better of fear, and out
of twenty volunteers, six sailors were chosen to man
one of the boats, with the third oﬁicer to steer.
The men bent to their oars in pursuit of the
strange craft which was scudding away from them
now on a fresh puff of wind. It seemed as if the
yacht knew that her secret was imperilled, and was
luring her pursuers maliciously into danger. But
the third ofﬁcer had a watchful eye on the vessel’s
sails,.and presently called to his crew to easy. They
hung on their oars, the boat forging on over the
shining water with its own way; and a moment later
the yacht came up in stays, staggering, with all her
widespread canvas ﬂapping uncertainly.
“ Steady now,” cried the third oﬁicer; and he
steered to the yacht’s lee side. Peter Knight was
crouching in the boat’s bow, ready to be the ﬁrst to
spring on board the derelict. He had claimed from
Manners this dangerous post. The boat crept up.
Only ten yards of moonlit water separated them
from the White yacht’s side. Now they could read
her name, Xenia, a discovery which did nothing to


I6 A SECRET OF THE SEA
lessen the mystery. The name of Xenia might be-
long to one of many countries. No gangway had
been lowered, no Jacob’s ladder hung over her side;
there was nothing to show that any one had lately
boarded or left the silent craft. Her smooth, white
side rose high above the tossing boat, and Peter
wondered if he should succeed in getting on board.
Suddenly the third ofﬁcer gave the order to back.
The yacht spun round, and the sailors’ vigorous
strokes only just kept the boat clear. The bowsprit
came swinging overhead. Knight saw his chance.
He leaped, caught the martingale, pulled himself up-
ward, hand over hand, swinging above the water,
and at the end of a diﬁicult moment was astride the
bowsprit, the Naiad’s boat, already ﬁfty yards away,
rocking in the swirl of the sea.
Manners was shouting to him, but Knight could
not catch the words. The murmur of water and
the rustle of ﬂapping canvas were in his cars, which
mingling, seemed to be but the voice of the deathly
silence lying heavy as a curse upon the yacht. The
round, bright moon stared down on the deserted deck
like a great all-seeing eye. Knight clambered along
the bowsprit, and jumping lightly down, ran quickly
across the blank white space, his own black shadow
following at his heels like a cowering, evil thing.
The wind had suddenly dropped, as if it paused to
hear the yacht’s secret; and Knight, springing
to the helplessly swaying wheel, grasped it with a


WHAT THE MOON SAW 17
steadying hand, so that the boat might approach
again in safety if she made haste. Then, when
presently he felt the faint thrill of her bump against
the side, he left the wheel to run and throw a line
(brought from the Naiad, wound round his arm) to
Manners.
The elder man was strong and wiry, used to yachts
and most emergencies of yachting. He came up
stoutly, with a grqu word of thanks to Knight for the
help he gave; and in a moment the boat was away
again, out of danger.
Manners steadied himself, and stood silent for an
instant, grasping the rail. The penetrating sense of
mystery, and something hidden, waiting to be found
out, had caught him, as it had Peter Knight.
“You’re a good plucky sort; I’ll say that for
you,” announced the millionaire. “ And I’ve an idea
that we’ll both need all the pluck we've got in this
next half hour.” .
“Who knows? Shall we go below?” asked
Peter. “ There seems to be no clue to the mystery
here; or anyhow, it would be unwinding it from the
wrong end.”
Almost unconsciously they spoke in lowered
voices. The sound of their own footsteps was un-
naturally loud in their ears, and they could almost
have fancied an echo.
The yacht appeared to be new and well cared for.
The brasswork glittered in the moonlight; the deck


18 A SECRET OF THE SEA
was spotless, and showed no sign of disorder, except
that the uneasy motion had caused several odd,
foreign-looking deck chairs to slip down toward the
rail.
The two men walked to the companion way,
whence streamed up a brilliant light.
“,Let me go ﬁrst, sir," said Peter with an impulse
to shield Betty’s father from an unknown danger.
Manners read the impulse, and found something
to approve in it; for if anything should happen to
him at this stage of the game, his ex-secretary’s posi-
tion toward the girl he loved would be simpliﬁed
incalculably. '
Peter had his way, and went ahead, the elder man
close behind him.


CHAPTER II
THE SPELL OF SILENCE
VAGUELY they had fancied some tragic sight,
which would spring at their eyeballs. But
there was no disorder in the lighted dining saloon of
this spellbound yacht.
The room was charmingly decorated and gay with
electric lights set starlike in the pale blue walls and
ceiling. Everything was blue, and white, and gold.
A table, with a cover of ﬁne-drawn linen showing a
glint of gold cloth through the lacework squares of
its insertion, was laid for two persons; and the serv-
ice was of gold and sparkling cut glass. In the cen-
tre, their rich heads crushed together, and hanging
over the side, a mass of great pink and dark red
roses were crowded into a strangely shaped bowl of
gold. It seemed as if dinner waited for the yacht’s
master — an eccentric millionaire, perhaps — and
one guest, had it not been that the meal had evi-
dently gone far toward its end.
In a shallow dish of gold, huge red African straw-
berries glowed like rubies on a bed of their own
green leaves. A few had been placed on each of the
plates laid for the diners. Some had been dipped in
sugar and eaten, for little heaps of powdered sugar
I9


20 A SECRET OF THE SEA
on the plates were stained pink, and several green-
fringed stems lay scattered beside them. There
were heeltaps of wine in the port glasses. Two
napkins lay on the ﬂoor under the table, as if the
persons dining had risen suddenly and allowed them
to slip from their laps. Nothing in the saloon was
disturbed. Had it not been for the ominous, brood-
ing silence, it might have seemed that the dinner-
table had been deserted only for a moment, because
of some interesting sight for which the diners had
been hastily called on deck.
The drawing room, farther on, was dark, but
Knight turned on a ﬂood of electric light, softened to
rose tints by graceful ﬂower lamps. Beside a divan,
piled with embroidered cushions and covered with a
Persian praying-rug, coloured like a fading rainbow
and worth its weight in gold, was a low stand holding
books and papers. On the top was a French novel,
lying open, face downward. Manners glanced at
the mass of literature. For one English illustrated
paper, there were three in French; and there were
several Greek dailies. Nothing yet to give a clue to
the nationality of the owner; the cushions on the
divan were pressed, as if by a reclining head and
shoulders; and a faint, delicate perfume hung about
the embroidered silk, suggesting the late presence of
a woman.
“ Now for the cabins,” said Manners, with sup-
pressed eagerness.


THE SPELL OF SILENCE 21
Of these there were six—three which had evi-
dently been unoccupied, as there were no nicknacks
nor clothing about; and two, very large and hand-
some, which looked as if the occupants had just gone
out after dressing for dinner. The sixth cabin had
apparently been tenanted by a lady’s maid.
The two largest and best of the six cabins were
ﬁtted up to make their owners forget as completely
as possible that they were on shipboard. There
were no berths, and the clamps which secured the
beds to ﬂoor and walls were inconspicuous. One
room was simply furnished, though the simplicity
was costly. A wardrobe built into the wall hid the
absent owner’s larger belongings, but on the dress-
ing table lay a gold repeater watch, with a small,
plain chain. Manners picked it up silently, exam-
ined a curious diamond monogram on the back com-
posed of Greek letters, and opening the watch to ﬁnd
the maker’s name, gave a loud, inarticulate cry.
Peter Knight, whose gaze had been wandering
questioningly about the cabin, turned quickly to his
late employer. The expression on the elder man’s
face startled him. Never before had he seen Man-
ners look as he looked now.
“ \Vhy—why, what is it, sir?” he exclaimed.
“ My God!” murmured the other, half beneath
his breath.
He did not seem to have heard Knight’s question,
and something in the heavy face, grown abruptly old


22 A SECRET OF THE SEA
and drawn, sent a creeping thrill through the young
man’s veins. Suddenly Manners had become for
him part of the mystery which pressed tangibly
against him, like a hidden ﬁgure wrapped in an im-
penetrable veil. Peter did not repeat his question,
and the two stood in silence for a long moment.
The spell which lay upon the yacht like enchantment,
seemed to have fallen upon them also. Manners
was staring with wide, ﬁxed eyes at something inside
the open watch, something which the raised gold
cover with its sparkling monogram would have con-
cealed from Knight even if he had wished to spy.
He did not wish it, even though his curiosity was ex-
cited almost to breaking point, with a strange tingle
of awe. He would not go on staring at Manners
lest he should appear to be vulgarly prying, and his
eyes strayed again to the dressing table.
A gold cigarette case lay there, with the same
odd monogram upon it, and there were a couple of
rings, such as a man might wear. One was a
double-headed serpent of platinum, with a black
opal and a black diamond; the other a seal ring
of red-veined bloodstone. Knight felt irresistibly
compelled to pick it up, and examine the motto.
“ My honour is my life,” he read, in old French.
Why did that motto seem familiar to him? he
wondered. Had he known some family who owned
it? It must be so, of course, though he could not
remember. Still, though he could not place it in his


THE SPELL OF SILENCE 23
recollections, as he saw the tiny, deep-cut words, it
was as if they had tumbled suddenly down from
some long-forgotten niche in his brain.
The ring, or rather the motto, fascinated him.
For an instant he had forgotten the mystery of Man-
ners and the hidden thing in the watch, and so tense
were his nerves that he started as the elder man
spoke, sharply and abruptly.
“ Come, let us go on,” he said, making for the
door.
Peter followed, having laid the ring back in the
place whence he had taken it. In doing so, he ob-
served that the watch had not been returned.
They went to the next cabin, and now Manners‘s
mood had changed. He had been grave and de-
liberate; now he moved jerkily, with hardly con-
trolled excitement.
“ A woman's room! ” Knight exclaimed, as they
entered.
“ Yes,” returned Manners, between set teeth.
It was a Parisian interior in miniature. The bed
was shaped like a great white swan, with folded
wings, the pale pink, ﬁlmy curtains suspended from
the bird’s beak. The walls were of pink and silver
brocade; on a divan under the curtained port-hole
lay an exquisite robe de ,chambre of lace and chiffon.
The dressing table glittered with gold ornaments,
turquoise-studded. Under the light, which ﬁltered
through pink roses in a wreath round the mirror, a


24 A SECRET OF THE SEA
number of diamond rings and bangles ﬂashed rain-
bow rays.
Peter Knight stood back, feeling an intruder, and
thinking with a quick heart-throb of lovely little
Betty asleep, perhaps, in her cabin on the Naiad.
But Manners strode into the room, and began turn-
ing over the scattered heap of jewellery with almost
repulsive eagerness. Presently he pushed it away
from him with a sigh that was almost a groan.
“ This yacht is like a riﬂed gravel ” he exclaimed.
“ For heaven’s sake let’s get out of this scented
room, and search — search till we get to the bottom
of the mystery! ”


CHAPTER III
ONLY A PACKING CASE
HE two men went up on deck, and suddenly be-
came conscious of the purposeless lurching of
the yacht, which down below they had forgotten,
though she had never ceased to stagger over the little
waves like a drunken man in the dark. The canvas
still flapped dejectedly, and whenever the yacht
stumbled against a wave, the deck chairs slid back
and forth with a scraping sound that twanged upon
Manners’s strained nerves. It was his pride to have
earned the reputation of a Stoic; and even his secre-
tary had supposed him one until to-night. Now, he
had had a revelation as to what lay beneath the
hard surface of the millionaire’s nature; and seeing
that for once the cold man was not cold, neither
master of himself, the secretary ventured to take the
lead.
“ We’re sure to find out something about the yacht
itself, anyhow, in the captain’s cabin,” he said.
“ But if you don’t mind my suggesting, hadn’t our
ﬁrst move better be to get the men from the boat on
board, and have some one to reef the sails and steer?
25


26 A SECRET OF THE SEA
I suppose you mean to have the Naiad take the yacht
in tow for the present, and —-—-”
“ Certainly, certainly,” broke in Manners, with
irritable impatience. “You’ve kept your head; I
don’t know what’s wrong with mine, but my brain’s
like that whee! to-night —- it needs some one to steer
it. Strange if it weren’t so, Heaven knows! ”
The last words he muttered beneath his breath;
yet the younger man heard, feeling as if he had no
right to hear.
The boat had kept as near as possible to the dere-
lict. Peter signalled with a shout, and ran to the
wheel, keeping the yacht steady while the boat crept
under her lee side. For a moment Manners stood
still, his chin sunk, his hands behind his back, the line
which Knight had given him trailing aimlessly on the
deck. Suddenly he roused himself, remembering
that there was something for him to do; but it was
a wrench to come back in an instant across a chasm
of years, and it took strength from his body and
brain.
Peter Knight, in his new role as leader, had sug-
gested that, while he went to the wheel, Manners
should give the men a line to come on board. His
late employer had agreed, mechanically, and then
forgotten; but he was ready by the time the boat
was rocking under the yacht’s side.
Five minutes later all was changed. The derelict
was a derelict no more. Her canvas was coming


ONLY A PACKING CASE 27
down; the third ofﬁcer had taken Knight’s place at
the wheel. The boat was in tow — a black, bobbing
spot in the foaming track of the yacht. Something
of the spell which, as if by enchantment, had bound
the two men when they were alone together on the
staggering derelict was gone; but the mystery re-
mained unbroken.
“ I wish to Heaven we had daylight! ” exclaimed
Manners with a ﬁerce, impatient gesture, as if he
would have torn in two the curtain of night. “ This
gray moonshine has got on my nerves. It's as if it
were in league with something of evil to keep us from
ﬁnding what we’re after. It’s worse than black
darkness. Then, at least, we should know we
couldn’t see, and would have to wait. This dusk
leads us on to think we can see, when we can’t.”
“ We may have to wait for some things," said
Peter, “ until to—morrow. But indoors the electric
light will serve us as well as day; and you’ve all
night to play detective if you choose, sir. I suppose
bed won’t have much attraction for you, while the
key of this mystery isn’t even turned in the lock; and
as for me — I hope you mean to let me see the night
through with you, anyhow? ”
“That is what I want,” said Manners. “ Two
brains are better than one, and yours has no cob-
webs in it, as mine has -—now. You must help me
sweep them out. But as for turning the key in the
lock of the mystery, as you put it, something seems


28 A SECRET OF THE SEA
to say to me that it will never be done. There have
been mysteries of the sea which have never been
solved, and this bids fair to be the strangest of all.
I am lost in it.” '
“ Something says to me that it will be done,” ex-
claimed Knight. “ And I say to myself that it shall
be done. By Jove, sir, my ﬁngers tingle to turn that
key! But look, we’re close to the Naiad; she’s
standing by for us, awaiting your orders. Will you
give them?”
For the ﬁrst time in his life, perhaps, the million-
aire was undecided.
“ I don’t know,” he said. “ There’s a weight on
my thinking machine. It won’t work. I’m not
here, really, to tell the truth, Knight. The best
part of me has gone far away—into the past to
fetch something which will bind two broken links to-
gether, and it hasn’t come back yet. I suppose we
shall have to take her on to Tangier, eh? "
“Perhaps you’ve forgotten, sir, there’s no har-
bour at Tangier. You can’t leave her there; and
there’d be difﬁculty in towing her all the way to Lis-
bon. Wouldn’t it be better to turn round and take
her to Gib? You know the captain of the port
there, too, and he would do everything he could.”
“You’re right,” said Manners. “That is what
I’ll do. VVe’ll get her in tow ﬁrst, and then go on
with our explorations. I want her to ourselves as
we had her before. All these chaps-running about


ONLY A PACKING CASE 29
is confusing. I believe that is partly what’s wrong
with me.”
Knight did not argue with his employer. He
thought the reason far more subtle; though as for
that reason itself, it was twisted in and in with the
larger mystery. He did not know whether Manners
meant to enlighten him or not, though something in
the elder man's manner once or twice — a new kind
of weakness, a groping for a staff to lean upon—-
hinted that the secret of the m-illionaire’s emotion
might be had, perhaps, for the asking. But by what
right could he ask? Peter Knight thought by none.
The masts of the yacht were now stripped clean
of canvas. She was no longer a wild, struggling
thing, a danger to her captors, but was held at their
mercy; only her secret was still her own, and might
never be conquered. The mystery seemed to wait,
hovering just out of reach, while the work of taking
her in tow went on.
In half an hour it was ﬁnished. The Naiad had
changed her course, and was steaming for Gibraltar,
on which she had turned her back only a short time
before. Whether she touched next day at Tangier
or at “ Gib” was much the same to Peter Knight.
In any case he was to go. It did not matter to him
where he parted from Betty Manners, since part
they must, and the parting could not be delayed.
To-night Manners seemed to have forgotten what
had passed, and his own words; but he would remem-


30 A SECRET OF THE SEA
ber to-morrow, and Peter knew him well enough to
be sure that he would not change his mind. Even if
he said: “Stay,” Peter could not stay, unless he
said also: “I will give you Betty”; and this he
wouldn’t be more inclined to say by morning than
he had been by night.
Down in the gorgeous pink cabin of the derelict
he had thought thrillingly of Betty, and pictured her
asleep; but she was not asleep. In her stateroom,
half undressed, she had heard sounds which were
strange to the well-ordered peace of the Naiad.
She had guessed that something unusual was going
on, and a new excitement had been added to that
which the girl already felt. It was impossible to
think of going to bed. She had not rung for her
maid; for after the scene with Knight and her father
she had been in no mood for any companion-ship,
since she could not have the companionship she
wanted. She slipped on a dressing gown, and over
that 'a long cloak. Then she went up and peeped out
on deck. She saw neither of the men who had pos-
session of her mind, and went boldly in search of
them. It was the captain who told her what had
happened, and pointed out to her the boat in which
Manners and Peter Knight were being rowed to-
ward the tossing derelict. Naturally, the girl did
not go below again. She remained on deck, watch-
ing all the maneuvres of the strange yacht; and
there, from the deck of the Xenia, Peter saw her at


ONLY A PACKING CASE 31
last, gazing across at him through the moonlight.
She was more spirit-like than ever, seen from
afar; and a keen sense of her remoteness struck at
Peter’s heart. If it were only that strip of cold,
shining water that divided them one from the other,
how easy things would be! But it was more—
much more. Then, as he looked, she knew that his
eyes were on her, and waved her hand. His heart
grew warm again. No, he would not give her up
for twenty Mannerses. He would fight fair—but
he would ﬁght.
When the Xenia was safely in tow, the millionaire
had his wish. All the men had gone back to the
Naiad save two, one at the wheel, another on watch.
Practically Manners and Peter Knight had the
strange yacht to themselves; and when all was quiet,
they went to the captain’s cabin, and turned on the
electric light. They found the room deserted, as
they had known they would. All was in the same
good order, which, as far as they had gone, reigned
everywhere. The cabin was small, but the com-
pactly arrange-d furniture was handsome; the van-
ished owner of the Xenia had not grudged his
captain excellent accommodation. But where was
the captain now?
Manners pointed to a high desk of walnut wood.
“ His papers will be there,” he said. “ But prob-
ably it’s locked, and we shall have to force every-
thing open.” As he spoke, he tried to push up the


32 A SECRET OF THE SEA
rolling top, and to his surprise it moved. “ By
Jove!” he exclaimed, “ the thing’s empty! ”
For a few seconds he and Knight stood staring
into the desk, which was absolutely ba’re. Not a
book, not a paper; not even a stray envelope from
a letter. After that brief pause of amazement the
elder man stooped, and began opening ﬁrst one
drawer and then another. All were alike empty.
“ What can it mean?” Manners asked. “Why
should the man have a ﬁne desk like this in his cabin,
and not use it? It isn’t as if it were new. It’s been
in its place for some time; one can see that, by a
chip oﬂ here and there, and the way the varnish is
scratched.”
“ He did use it,” said Peter. “The fact that
the desk is empty is one more link in this night’s
mystery.”
“But he may have had a fancy to keep every-
thing in his locker,” said Manners, obstinately.
“ Anyhow, we’ll have a look.”
They had a look. The captain’s modest ward-
robe was neatly arranged in the locker, but the
yacht’s papers, the agreement with the crew, and
all other things which they had counted upon for in-
formation, were missing. Not wholly discouraged,
however, they prolonged their search, peering into
every cranny which could possibly contain anything
worth ﬁnding, even under the mattress of the cap-
tain’s berth.


ONLY A PACKING CASE 33
“ H’m! ” ejaculated Manners. “ It begins to
look rather ﬁshy for the captain; don’t you think so?
What sort of crime has been committed it’s impos-
sible to tell yet; but crime of some kind there must
have been,i(o sweep the yacht clean of every human
being on board. Why should the yacht’s papers be
missing unless there was a reason to make them dis-
appear? And who else but the captain should
make them disappear? ”
“Well, sir, so far I’ve only a feeling to go on.
I don’t feel it was the captain. What motive could
he have had to betray his master and get rid of
every soul on board? ”
“ Every man has his price, it’s said. The owner
of this yacht evidently is—or was—very rich.
The appointments are superb. Why, the N aiad’s a
beggar-maid beside this strange Xenia. The motive
may have been theft on a grand scale.” I
“ Even a thief with grand ideas wouldn’t be likely
to despise such loot as that we saw below—gold
dishes and jewellery.” _
“ I forgot that for the moment. Perhaps the
fellow was mad; murdered everybody and got off
himself in a boat.”
“ None of the yacht’s boats is missing. I looked
to see. And certainly, so far, we’ve come across
no sign of violence.”
“ That’s true. Whichever way we start out we
seem to come up against a blank wall. I believe


ONLY A PACKING CASE 35
almost angrily. “ The clue may be waiting-—
merely waiting for us to pick it up—somewhere
else.”
They went to the ﬁrst oﬁicer’s cabin, and so on
to the forecastle, but were no wiser than in starting,
except for having seen that there was accommoda-
tion for twelve in the crew, two stewards, a cook, and
an assistant. They were able to discover this by
means of the clothing they found. Nevertheless,
the mystery deepened with every step they took; for,
not only were the yacht’s papers missing from the
captain’s cabin, but not a letter, not a paper which
could give a clue to the identity of any oﬂicer or
member of the crew, could be found.
So far as discovering where the Xenia had been
built, whence she had sailed, who was her owner, or
where she had been oﬁicered and manned, it might
be— Manners said, desperately—that she had
sailed out of the moon, and that every one on board
had gone back there.
Having explored the forecastle, they went to the
galleys; one for the use of the head cook, in pre-
paring meals for the saloon, a small one adjoining
for the assistant, whose duty it was to cook for the
forecastle. Opening out of the former was the
storeroom, and here they came upon the ﬁrst sign
.of confusion. In itself, it was not much, and af-
forded no real clue. Manners, uninterested, would
have passed it with indifference; but Peter Knight


36 A SECRET OF THE SEA
paused, looking down contemplatively at a huge, un-
covered wooden packing case, half drawn out from
under the lowest of a row of well-stocked shelves.
The case had the name of a celebrated ﬁrm of
French wine merchants upon it. This fact in it-
self was something; but it was not that which ar-
rested the young man’s attention.
The use of the case on board the yacht had not
been to hold wine bottles, for in the bottom lay a
mass of common bed-ticking, clean and new, though
crumpled, as if it had been wrapped round some-
thing. On this rested a wooden grating, tipped up
against the side of the packing case, and on the ﬂoor,
in front of the latter, were ranged a number of
sealed tins containing fruit preserved by an Eng-
lish ﬁrm.
“ Come along, Knight,” said Manners. “ Let’s
ﬁnd a lantern, and have a look in the hold. Who
knows but we shall ﬁnd a baker’s dozen of bodies
huddled down there? Had you thought of that?”
“It’s possible, sir; one feels here as if anything
were possible,” murmured Peter. But he did not
move, and the elder man saw that his mind was busy
on something unconnected with his words.
“What are you staring at that big box for?”
he demanded, impatiently. “ I don’t see that it has
anything to say to us.”
“ I wonder what was in it,” said Peter. “ Look
here, Mr. Manners, this grating was intended to lie


ONLY A PACKING CASE 37
on those cross-pieces of wood, nailed on about eight
inches from the top. Upon that these tins prob-
ably stood. You can see ”—- and he took one from
the ﬂoor —“ there would have been just room for
them under the cover. Now, what was kept un-
derneath that grating, and why was it necessary to
conceal it with a decoy layer of fruit tins?”


CHAPTER IV
UNDER THE CRIMSON RUG
ANNERS’S face lost its impatient frown.
“Jove, Knight, you have the detective in-
stinct in you!” he exclaimed. “ Whether you’ve
stumbled on a mare’s nest, or whether you’ve got
hold of an obscure clue, it’s the same thing. The
instinct’s there.”
“I suppose we’ve most of us got something of
it in us,” said Peter, “ if circumstances bring it out.
Perhaps ”-—— and he laughed, with a faint sneer which
had little bitterness left in it —“ my ‘genius ’ lies
that way.”
But Manners did not laugh. “We were talking
of genius which could be useful to me,” he said, “ in
the conversation which I presume you refer to.
Well, I had little enough thought of this, then. I
spoke at random. As it has turned out in these last
two hours, however, the genius which could best
in the world suit my purpose is precisely the de-
tective genius. Prove that you have it by unearth-
ing the whole of this mystery for me—mind, the
whole of it — and I’ll make you a rich man.”
38


UNDER THE CRIMSON RUG 39
“ You mean that you’ll give me Miss Manners? ”
“ I’m talking about money not love.”
“ But I work for love, not money.”
“Good heavens, man, you can’t aﬁord to quarrel
with fortune. Look here; ﬁnd out for me not
only what happened on this yacht to-day, but who
the owner was, who was the woman with him, and
the cause of the tragedy on board, working up from
the beginning—whatever that may have been—
and I’ll pay you one hundred thousand dollars for
the information.”
“ But you won’t give me your daughter? ”
“ Hang it all, Knight! If you turn out a genius,
and your genius gets you riches, you’ll still lack
one of the essentials we talked of.”
“A name? ”
“ Yes. The one you wear sounds well enough.
But you told me how you got it.”
“ I’ve tried as well as I could to live up to it, sir.
But suppose I take you at your word. Suppose
that I give up my life to ﬁnding out all that you
want to know. Suppose that, though others try,
I’m the one who succeeds. Why should I do the
work for you unless to earn a reward worth hav-
ing? ”
“ Isn’t one hundred thousand dollars worth hav-
ing? ”
“Not when something else is the thing I want.
Besides, there may be others who would pay as much
as you to get to the bottom of the mystery. I’d


40 A SECRET OF THE SEA
rather take money from them, and love from you.”
“There’s nobody on God’s earth to whom this
can mean as much as it does to me. But you are
very grasping.”
“ Can’t I make my name one that you wouldn’t
be ashamed to let Miss Manners bear? At least, I
am a gentleman.”
“ What you are is all right. It’s what you are not
that I quarrel with. And, besides, this conversa-
tion is premature. You’re not a detective. You
may have little more bent that way than many an-
other amateur guided by an intelligent curiosity.
My emotions have run away with me to-night; I
confess the weakness. I have let myself be im-
pressed with your conﬁdence that the mystery could
be worked out like a puzzle. I have caught at a
few signs of your ability for working it out, and
your determination. But what is to prevent me
from setting some fellow who is not an amateur
on the track? I suppose good detectives do exist
out of ﬁction, eh?”
“ Perhaps so, sir. I have no experience of them.
I only feel that this thing is for me. I think I can
succeed, and that others will fail, that is all.”
“Have you already formed a theory about the
desertion of the yacht?”
“I’m groping on the way toward one. But
even so, that is merely the beginning.”
“ You are right._ And besides, the desertion of


UNDER THE CRIMSON RUG 41
the yacht is not the thing which looms biggest to
me. I will tell you this much, now. There’s a
mystery within a mystery, where I am concerned in
this affair. And it has bafﬂed all detective skill
for many a long year."
“ Oh, then you have proved the professionals fail-
ures? ”
“ You’re quick to snatch at a straw. I’ve proved
some of them failures. But what I was going to
say is this: The whole mystery or nothing, for me.
Nothing else is worth paying for.”
“ I swear I’ll ﬁnd it out.”
“ Then you shall have one hundred thousand dol-
lars.”
“ I won’t part with it for that.”
“ Talk of refusing to part, my friend, when you’ve
something to part with.”
“I'll talk of it again, then, sir, if you’ll give
me the chance."
“ You shall have every chance within reason.
But, meanwhile, some other chance, as I’ve said be-
fore, may toss the whole secret into my hands with-
out your agency.”
“ Shall you stay in Gibraltar, sir, and try to work
out the puzzle for yourself? ”
“ No, I can’t do that. I must get some one else.”
“ Do you expect to ﬁnd a detective at Gibraltar;
or will the authorities there act as such?”
“I should be sorry to put my case into their
hands. They’re too full of red tape already.”


4.2 A SECRET OF THE SEA
“‘ Do you, then, commission me to undertake it?”
“ For the hundred thousand dollars reward? ”
“ No, sir; for the chance—the mere chance—
of showing myself a clever-enough man to deserve
that you change your mind about me for Miss Man-
ners."
“ What do you mean by ‘ the mere chance ’? Are
you trying to bind me to anything concerning her? ”
“ No. For the chance that, if I distinguish my-
self in conducting an affair which seems to be of
vital importance to you, sir, you might feel inclined
to say: ‘Peter Knight’s “genius” has been use-
ful to me; he has been shrewd enough to earn one
hundred thousand dollars if he chooses to take it;
and therefore the name of Knight, unbacked by an-
cestors, is no longer to be despised.’ ”
“You would do your best, then, on the chance
that the glory of your deeds might move me to
such a decision; though, on the other hand, when
I’d proﬁted by your work, I might after all con-
sider the obstacle between you and my daughter
as big as I do at this moment? ”
“Yes; I would do my best on that chance, no
matter how hard the work might be, how many the
sacriﬁces I should have to make, or how long the
time I spent.”
“ By Jove! those words go with that square chin
of yours. You ought to succeed in life, Knight, if
it’s ‘dogged that does it.’ ”


UNDER THE CRIMSON RUG 43
“ I’m going to try, if you say the chance is mine.”
Manners paused for a moment. Then he said:
“But Betty is only eighteen; an impulsive little
thing, not much more than a child, and a spoiled child
at that. She fancies herself in love with you now,
because she’s been thrown with you for a fortnight
or so. To-morrow, you part. And remember —at
Tangier we are taking Lord Umberleigh and his
sister on board. You knew that. But you didn’t
know that Umberleigh wants to marry Betty.
There was no reason why you should know it be-
fore; now it’s only fair to tell you; for Umberleigh’s
a nice young fellow, and in every way ‘ eligible ’ as
the English dowagers say. They’ve met several
times; she can’t help admiring him — all women do,
I believe; and he’s in love with her. On board the
N aiad together for eight or ten days, as they will
be, you can see that she’ll have opportunities of
forgetting you, especially as on no account should
I allow you to hint of any hopes for the future.”
“I should not think of doing so, sir,” answered
Peter, steadily, though the knife was turned round
in his heart. All that Manners said was true. The
girl was very young and impulsive. And Peter had
met the Marquis of Umberleigh who was one of
the best-looking young men in England. Still he
stuck to his guns. “In spite of all you’ve said,”
he added, “I am ready to work on the
chance.”


44. A SECRET OF THE SEA
“Then we’ll strike a bargain on those lines,” ex-
claimed Manners. “So now, since we’ve sorted
out our plans, if you’ve done with that packing-
case which started the whole conversation, we’ll go
on to the hold, and perhaps at once upset all our
own calculations.”
Peter did not think that this would happen, but
he held his peace. He felt that he had said enough.
The lantern Manners had suggested looking for was
secured on returning to the forecastle and the two
men set out for an exploration of the hold. There
they found the obvious: a smooth layer of lead
ballast in lieu of the cargo which would have ﬁlled
the hold of a merchant ship, and nothing else. They
did not give up the search until Manners had ab-
solutely satisﬁed himself that, in this dark, depress-
ing place, there was no clue to the secret of the
Xenia.
“Still,” he said at last, “ we’ve by no means ﬁn-
ished the night’s work. There is the clothing in the
cabins, and—they may contain papers of impor-
tance, though every other place seems to have been
cleared. We will go together, if you choose; that
is your right, because, in a fashion, I’ve engaged
you to work up the case, so to speak. But, I tell
you frankly, what I want is to do this one thing
by myself. I have my reasons, and—as yet—
they’re for myself alone.”
“I’ll go up on deck, have a smoke, and think


UNDER THE CRIMSON RUG 45
things over,” said Knight. “ You will ﬁnd me‘ there,
if you want me later.”
They parted; Manners to‘visit the deserted state-
rooms, where the scattered jewels still sparkled
coldly under the electric light; Knight to go on
deck.
The moon was now at the zenith. There were
no more black, elusive shadows, but a ﬂood of white
light streaming directly down from overhead.
Peter ﬁlled and lighted an old briarwood pipe,
which had been a humble, but valued friend of his
for years. He began to pace the deck slowly- and
thoughtfully, but instead of concentrating his mind
on the mystery of the derelict, half unconsciously
he let it go wandering back to his own past.
Perhaps this was natural. Though it was vital
to his interests now that he should wrestle with the
secret of the Xenia, if his past had been like that of
other men, he knew he would not be so heavily
handicapped in undertaking the task to which he
had set himself.
In thought, he was again a little boy of five years
old, alone in a Neapolitan hotel, wondering what
was to become of him, now that his beautiful mother
was dead. He had actually forgotten the present
and was reviewing an extraordinary incident which
had decided his whole future life, when he almost
stumbled against a curious object which he had not
seen before.


46 A SECRET OF THE SEA
It was a large iron cage; and the spot where it
stood on deck had been in deep shadow when he
and Manners ﬁrst came on board the derelict. Not
only had it been shrouded in darkness, so that in
a hasty look round, they had failed to notice it,
but the uneasy motion of the yacht had caused an
elaborate chaise longue to slide against the cage
while a rug of crimson wool which had covered the
chair had blown over its roof. It still hung there,
twisted round an ornamental ball in the centre, but
a change in the direction of the breeze had sent
one fringed end flapping over another, and half the
cage was now exposed.
Peter Knight grew up suddenly from the lonely
little boy of ﬁve into the equally lonely young man
of ﬁve and twenty, and pulled the crimson rug down
from the roof of the iron cage. Here, he felt, with
a shock of the nerves, was the strangest thing of
all.


CHAPTER V
THE BROKEN CAGE
AS the cage empty, or was there some dark
shape crouching in the far corner? Knight
asked himself quickly.
No, there was nothing. The cage was empty, and
the young man stood staring down at it, silently
and expectantly, as if he waited for a voice to speak
and explain the relation of this queer object to the
mystery of the derelict.
The door of the cage was shut, but as Knight
stooped to look in, and make sure it was empty, he
saw that the bars of the door were bent and strained
out of shape, while a large padlock, with which it
had once been fastened, was broken. Either some
person not in possession of the key had wrenched
the padlock open, and freed the creature imprisoned
inside, or the creature itself had succeeded in forcing
its own way out and escaping.
But what had been the inmate of the cage?
Something not human had evidently made its home
behind those iron bars, and lately too, for a slightly
pungent, animal Odour still hung about the cage.
The beast could not have been as large as a lion or
47


48 A SECRET OF THE SEA
a tiger, for its iron house was not more than ten
feet in length, by ﬁve in height, and scarcely half
as long as broad. Still, judging by the size of the
bars, the prisoner must have been respected for its
strength; and, judging by the elaborate ornamenta-
tion at the top of the cage (a carved wreath of gold
twined round a large, polished ball of silver), it
had been highly valued by its owner.
Knight told himself that possibly his imagina-
tion was running away with his reason; but he could
not throw off the impression that here, in this
broken cage, and in the storeroom with the great
empty packing case, lay the chief clues to the mys-
tery of the yacht’s desertion. And yet there
seemed to be no actual “clues ” at all. He tried
again and again, standing there alone on the moon-
lit deck, in front of the cage, to construct a work-
able theory with these two stage properties as the
basis. But invariably he came up against a blank
wall at last.
The packing-case was large enough to hold the
body of a very tall man; but there must have been
(if one accepted the theory of wholesale murder)
many bodies to dispose of, and for these the huge
box would have been useless as a place of conceal-
ment. But perhaps the murderer himself might
have come on board in it, with the aid of a con-
federate. So far, so good; yet what was there to
prove that there had been murders and a murderer?


THE BROKEN CAGE 49
And what connection could the broken cage possi-
bly have with the packing case, its bed ticking, and
its queer grating?
Knight had invented and demolished half a dozen
theories, and was laboriously building up a seventh
when he heard Manners’s voice.
“ You there, Knight?” asked the millionaire.
“Ah yes, I see. Well, I trust you’ve been more
fortunate than I have. I’ve discovered nothing.
The only papers on board this yacht are the journals
and magazines we saw in the saloon. There’s noth-
ing private, and there’s no name on anything. What
luck have you had? ”
“ Nothing much,” said Peter, cautiously, for it
was not his policy now to show lack of conﬁdence in
the detective powers which were to buy him a chance
of happiness. “ But what do you make of that,
sir? ” And he pointed to the broken cage.
Manners stared as Peter had stared. “ I can’t
make anything of it,” he said, after a reﬂective
pause, “ except that the people on board this yacht
had a queer pet of some sort, and that it got loose,
or was let loose into the very middle of the mys~
"tery. But instead of clearing up the mystery this
only thickens it, if one is to suppose that cage could
have had anything to do with it at all. Do you
think it had? ”
“Yes,” said Knight. “I can’t help thinking it
had.”


THE BROKEN CAGE 51
“ Do you mean to tell me, then, that you’ve al-
ready hewn as much as a corner-stone out of this
confused mass of heterogeneous material? ”
“That‘s my impression at present. But look
here, sir, I don’t want anybody else to be turned on
to this job, unless I confess myself a failure and give
it up. That’s part of our bargain, isn’t it?”
“ The Captain of the Port of Gib will have to be
allowed a ﬁnger in the pie, I suppose,” said Man-
ners.
“Oh, I’m not afraid of him. But I don’t want
to be interfered with by outsiders. You say you
must get on to Tangier. Well, will you use your
inﬂuence with the captain of the port to let me live
on board the yacht while she stays at Gib? ”
“ Certainly,” agreed Manners. “I don’t know
what rules and regulations there are, but the cap-
tain’s a very good chap, and an old friend of mine,
as you know. I don’t see why he shouldn’t do as
much as this for me, especially as it’s my affair, and
not his, except ofﬁcially.”
“Thank you,” said Peter. “If I get that per-
mission I shall have had all the fav-Ours I want to
ask anybody in this aﬁair. The rest is for me to
work out alone.”
As he said this, the wish came upon him to be
idle and to do nothing more while Manners was
his companion. He had thought of going below,
now that the millionaire had ﬁnished his inspection


52 A SECRET OF THE SEA
of the cabins, to see if he might chance upon some
clue overlooked by the other; but he was possessed
by the new idea which had been whispered (per-
haps by his own eager instinct) into his ear. He
wanted to have the yacht to himself before he even
began to try working out the theory which ﬂoated
hazily before the eyes of his mind. Manners’s rest~
lessness had infected him, and he felt that he would
only tangle the skein of deduction if he attempted
to unwind it under the questioning gaze of the
elder man.
“ I’m going to think things out a bit, if you don’t
mind, sir," he said; and leaving Manners seated in
one of the deck-chairs near the broken cage, he
walked away, puﬂing at his pipe, sauntering up and
down, up and down, until the moon had set and
the dawn quivered white and tremulous in the east.
In the pale light, Manners’s heavy face was gray,
and curiously old, for he had dropped asleep in
his chair at last, and had fallen into troubled -
dreams. Peter stopped in his walk, and looked at
him. “I believe if I could see into your brain
now,” he said to himself, “the secret which you
have kept so long and can’t make up your. mind to
give up, would be written there, as if on a slate.
You look as if you were living again through
your past. This night has conjured it up, like a
ghost.”
Suddenly Manners stirred in his sleep. His


THE BROKEN CAGE 55
of her has brought back the impulse to speak. Once,
long ago — seven and twenty years ago, to be exact
—- when I had begun to make a name and money, I
loved a woman—a girl she was then. She was
very beautiful, and very poor. Her father had
been an Irish earl, but he was dead. All her near
relatives were dead, except an old aunt, with whom
she lived when I met her on one of my earliest visits
to London. They had just returned there after
several years abroad. Her name was Elizabeth
Desmond. She loved me, too, or I believe she did.
But what man can know a woman’s heart? We
were engaged, and our wedding-day was ﬁxed. It
came; I went to the church. She was not there.
The marriage was to be a quiet one, without brides-
maids. Her aunt and my best man were to have
been the only witnesses. Well, we waited, my
friend and I, and the parson, for nearly an hour.
Then the parson left the church, and my friend
and I drove to the house where Elizabeth Desmond
and her aunt lived. They had a ﬂat—one of the
few in London at that time. We knocked and
rang; nobody answered. We found the janitor, and
brought him upstairs to open the door with a dupli-
cate key. Inside the ﬂat, silence. We hurried from
room to room, at ﬁrst ﬁnding no one; but at last,
in a little boudoir where Betty and I had often
sat together, we came upon the old lady, sitting in
a chair—one of those high-backed, grandfather


56 A SECRET OF THE SEA
chairs, as they call them; and as its back was half-
turned to the door, we didn’t see her at ﬁrst. But
there she sat, stone dead, with a horrid, three-
cornered grin on her white, thin, little face. Good
Lord! I can see it now. Betty was nowhere to be
found. She had disappeared; and, if you will be-
lieve me, Knight, though I employed the most skilled
detectives in England, not only has the cause of old
Miss Desmond’s death remained a mystery, but not
a trace of Betty was ever discovered from that day
until to-night.”
“ To-night? ” echoed Peter.
“Yes,” the elder man repeated, with meaning
in his emphasis, “until to-night.”


CHAPTER VI
WHAT THE WATCH HELD
“ WENTY-SEVEN years make a lifetime,”
the millionaire went on, “ more than your
lifetime, Knight. Although I never forgot —- never
for a moment — I long ago gave up hope of solving
the mystery of Elizabeth Desmond’s disappearance.
I went home to America and eight years after I lost
her, I married a girl whose guardian I had been
for some time. She cared for me, I found out, and
I was suﬂiciently fond of her to feel justiﬁed in ask-
ing her to be my wife. When a child came, I desired
that she should be given the name of Elizabeth, and
my wife was good enough to consent without put-
ting questions. The other Elizabeth began to seem
like a beautiful dream to me as I grew older and
my blood cooled. Still, the thought of her meant
youth, and all I had ever known of the happiness of
youth. Sometimes I have waked from dreaming
of her at night, all the old agony of loss upon me,
as fresh as if we had just been torn apart, on our
marriage-day. You can guess, then, what it must
have been to me to open that watch on the man's
dressing table in the stateroom down below, and
57


IVHAT THE WATCH HELD 59
“ Remember, sir,” said Peter, as soothingly as he
knew how -— for the vehemence of the hard man was
startling —“ remember that it is twenty-seven years
since she disappeared. Because you saw her pic-
ture in a watch down below, and because some
woman was undoubtedly a guest on this yacht, that is
not to say that she was on board. Besides, can
you be absolutely sure it was Miss Desmond’s photo-
graph in the watch? After all these years, might
you not be deceived by a striking resemblance?”
“A thousand times no!” protested Manners.
“If you are going to take that ground, you can be
of no use to me. There was only one Elizabeth
Desmond in the world. When she was made, the
model was broken.”
“ Granting you were not mistaken, then, what is tO
prove that the photograph you saw in the watch was
not taken before she disappeared?”
“ Because the face is older, and the fashion of
the dress is later. Still, the photograph is faded and
old. Many years must have passed now since she
sat for it. \Vhen I left you and went below, to
have a look through the cabins, I opened the watch
again and took out the picture to see if anything
were written on the back. But it was blank. No
clue there or anywhere —- except her face in a watch
which belonged to another man! Somehow I had
always felt that she must be dead; and there was
a grim kind of consolation in the theory, for at


60 A SECRET OF THE SEA
least, if she was not for me, she was for no one
else, and I could still believe that she had not gone
from me of her own free will. But now, to have
had that peaceful idea uprooted—to think that
all these years she has been on the same earth
with me, living her own life, happy perhaps, loving
and loved. While I mourned her! Heavens! I
don’t know myself. Get to the bottom of this mys-
tery quickly, Knight, if you’re going to do it at
all.”
Knight was a good deal moved, and for the ﬁrst
time Manners seemed to him human, a man like
himself. His heart warmed to the millionaire, and
he felt that he could forgive him many things. He
was ready to work for Betty’s father, now as well
as for Betty and himself.
“Trust me to do my best,” he said, earnestly.
“ Look, sir, the sun’s rising; there’s Gib, like a
great Sphinx against the sky; and—and there’s
B there’s Miss Manners on the deck of the
Naiad.”

The strange night had passed. Once more they
were in the harbour at Gibraltar, where, twenty-four
hours ago, they had been before, and would have
been much surprised to be told that they would
return as soon again.
Peter had secretly hoped, after the conﬁdential
conversation which had brought his employer and


WHAT THE WATCH HELD 6r
himself into unexpected intimacy, that Manners
might have relented so far as to sanction a farewell
word or two between parting lovers; but he did
not yet know the millionaire. Manners had stated
his intentions, and would abide by them. He had,
after all, not conﬁded in Peter Knight solely because
he felt the need to open his heart, but because his
late secretary had undertaken a new role — that of
detective. It was to the detective, therefore that
he had spoken, not to the man, as Peter soon dis-
covered by his manner, which completely froze over
the moment that the two men went back on board
the Naiad. Before Betty, who had come up on
deck fully dressed for the day, could say so much as
“ Good morning,” her father had taken her by the
arm with the air of a proprietor, and swept her down
the companion. Physically she yielded, because she
must, but she was quick to show that her spirit was
unbroken; that if her parent could be obstinate, she
could be obstinate too.
“ Oh, you can play the ‘heavy father,’ if you
choose, dad,” she protested, boldly, “ but it won’t
make any difference in the end. I’ve got your blood
in my veins, and when I want a thing, I don’t give it
up a bit more easily than you do. I suppose you
can’t intend to shut me up in my stateroom all the
rest of the trip? ”
“Not I,” said Manners, as calmly as if his soul
had not been tempest-tossed by the events of the


62 A SECRET OF THE SEA
night. “ If you will be a good little girl and keep
out of Knight’s way this morning you can live on
deck if it pleases you afterward, till we get to New
York.”
“ What do you mean by that? Do you mean that
Peter and I are to be allowed to see each other just
as—as we were before?”
“ Don’t you think, my child, it would be as well
to speak of the young man as ‘ Mr. Knight’ until
things have gone a little further between you? As
for seeing him, if you’ll do me the favour to break-
fast in your cabin this morning, during the rest of
the trip you can see each other as often as you get
the chance. At least I won’t put any further ob-
stacles in your way.”
Betty’s big, long-lashed gray eyes studied her
father’s face suspiciously, but found it apparently
candid, and unabashed by her scrutiny.
“Well, since you are going to be nice, I’ll be
nice too,” she said. “ But I don’t quite believe in
you somehow, so this is only a truce, or ‘ armed neu~
trality,’ ‘or whatever one calls it. When are you
going to tell me all about that strange yacht? I’ve
been asking Captain Jennings lots of questions, but
he hasn’t been on board the Xenia. Is it true that
you can’t ﬁnd any trace of all the poor people, who
must have jumped overboard or something?”
“Traces in plenty, but nothing to explain why
they have disappeared,” Manners answered,


WHAT THE WATCH HELD 63
curiously conscious of the monogrammed watch with
the photograph which he had removed from the
profaning eyes that would soon pry among the other
relics. “ You must be satisﬁed for the present with
what you’ve heard from Jennings, for I shall be very
busy for the next hour or two— and so will Peter
Knight. We shall have to leave the derelict here, in
charge of the captain of the port, the man who
lunched with us yesterday. He will keep her until
it’s discovered who was the owner, where he lived,
what’s to be done with his property, and so on. As
for ourselves, we can’t stop. There’s nothing more
we can do now we’ve towed her in; the work must be
left in other hands—trusty ones, I hope—and
we shall go on to Tangier and meet Lord Umber-
leigh and Lady Haldon. Patience for a little
while; eat your breakfast, read a novel—0r even
think of Knight, if you must; and later I promise
you a dramatic narrative, told in my best style.”
“ But why am I to breakfast in my stateroom,”
asked Betty, “if everything is to go on afterward
just as usual?”
“You trust me for the reason, and be a good
girl, if you want your own way later on,” said
Manners, diplomatically. He had told the girl no
lies, and when she found out that “reason” for
herself by-and-by, she would have no real ground
on which to reproach him. His shoulders were
broad enough to bear her little girlish tantrums


64 A SECRET OF THE SEA
and to-night he would have Lord Umberleigh, a
handsome and pleasant young fellow, to help him put
the child in a good humour.
He kissed Betty and saw her into her stateroom.
Then he went about his business, comfortably sure
that she was to be trusted. He and Peter Knight
were still in evening dress, just as they had dined
last night (it seemed a week ago), and now they
hurriedly changed. Peter packed up his things hop-
ing still for a glimpse of Betty or, if not that, at
least a message delivered by her maid—a good-
natured creature who had shown signs of approv-
ing him. Without waiting for breakfast, save tea
and toast, brought to the cabin of each after their
baths, the two men went on shore, to interview the
captain of the port, who was a personage of impor-
tance at Gibraltar.
They breakfasted ﬁnally at his house, telling their
strange story at the same time, the captain of the
port half inclined to doubt the fact to which they
certiﬁed, that there were no papers by which the
yacht could be identiﬁed. There would have to
be an inquest on the derelict, he informed them, and
at ﬁrst he was disposed to insist that Manners must;
remain to bear witness. But when the millionaire
argued that it was extremely important for various
reasons that he should get away within the course
of a few hours, and that Mr. Knight, his secretary,
knew as much as he did, if not more, about the


WHAT THE WATCH HELD 65
matter, he consented to let Manners and the Naiad
go. He consented also to the plan that Knight
should live on board while the yacht was in the har-
bour. A couple of his own men must be there as
well, as a mere matter of form; but no hindrance
whatever would be placed in the way of Mr. Knight’s
proceedings. So long as he removed nothing from
the derelict he could do as he pleased. The Xenia
would be practically at his service and none save
ofﬁcial visits would be made to the yacht. Pres-
ently the captain of the port went on board with
Manners and Peter, looked over the Xenia, accom-
panied by them, and at last announced that, if it
were absolutely necessary for Manners to be off, he
would no longer seek to detain him.
The millionaire drew Peter aside, and having
asked for a telegram at Tangier, where the Naiad
would stay for two or three days if the weather re-
mained good, and another wire at Lisbon, he held
out his hand.
“Well, Knight, good-bye,” he said. “I believe
there’s nothing owing to you at present. Rather
odd you happened to be paid for your secretarial
services up to date yesterday; but, of course, that
settled everything, until you can let me know— and
I hope to Heaven it may be soon— that I have to
hand you over one hundred thousand dollars. I de-
pend upon you now; and when I say that, you know
it means a good deal.”


66 A SECRET OF THE SEA
“ Let me remind you that I’m working for love,
not money,” said Peter as he had said last night.
“ But I must go on board the Naiad for a few min-
utes and see about my luggage. It’s packed a!-
ready ———”
“ That’s all right, my dear fellow. To save you
trouble, I have had your luggage taken off. No
doubt they’ll allow you to have it here, on the Xenia,
as you’re to live on board. Now I must go off.
You will not neglect to keep me informed of every'
thing? ”
The Naiad was actually under way before Betty
knew that her father had come on board. She ran
up on deck, and found him standing near the bow.
Manners turned, and seeing her smiling expectant
face, made up his mind that he had some disagree-
able moments before him.


CHAPTER VII
WHAT KNIGHT FOUND UNDER THE TABLE
HE “inquest” on the Xenia was over, and
nobody concerned was any wiser than before.
Never had a verdict been so difficult to arrive at.
It was impossible to say whether the passengers and
crew of the yacht had been murdered, had com-
mitted suicide, whether there had been a bloodless
mutiny, or Whether one and all had been the victims
of some tremendous and mysterious catastrophe.
The arrival of the derelict and her almost in-
credibly strange story created a sensation in Gibral-
tar. Many people begged permission to go on
board, and she would have become a kind of ﬂoat-
ing museum— a sea chamber of horrors— had not
the captain of the port rigidly refused to allow any
one, save persons having ofﬁcial business, even to set
foot on the Xenia’s deck. But those oﬁicials had
tongues; and the magniﬁcent appointments of the
yacht, the wonderful jewels, the gold table service,
the exquisite wardrobe left by the mysterious lady,
and the fact that no papers were to be found,v W'ere
soon the subjects of universal discussion. Allsorts
of theories were brought forward. The. favourite
was that the Xenia had been attacked by Riff pirates,
67


68 A SECRET OF THE SEA
and every human being on board had been made to
walk the plank. The presence of valuables worth
a fortune presented an obstacle to this theory, but
it was agreed by its adherents that the pirates might
have taken alarm, and been obliged to leave the
yacht without their spoil. Others advanced the idea
that a monster octopus might have risen from the
sea and seized with its great tentacles several of
the people on board; whereupon, struck with horror
at the awful sight, those who remained had gone
mad and leaped overboard.
Some curiosity was felt concerning Peter Knight,
but as no one knew very much about him, the story
began to go round that he was a professional de-
tective, engaged to ferret out the mystery.
Peter had to make up his mind to idleness until
after the inquest on the yacht. But meanwhile his
brain had been busy, and he was eager to get to
work at proving or disproving the truth of the idea
which had leaped into his thoughts like an inspira-
tion.
Literally it was merely the germ of an idea; and
he realized that, unless he found it could be freely
fertilized with circumstantial evidence, the germ
must die and he would be left digging in more or
less barren ground for another more promising.
By his request everything aboard the Xenia had
been left in exactly the same position or state in
which he and Manners had found it when they had


70 A SECRET OF THE SEA
ﬂoating in Dick’s mind to happen. Therefore he
wished to prove to himself that the yacht had be-
come a derelict early in the afternoon; and his ﬁrst
thought when he was at liberty to do as he chose, was
to take steps toward this goal.
The strawberries left on the plates were now
no longer round and ruby-like, but wilted and of a
sickly, purplish tinge, so that their appearance could
not help him to a decision. But he remembered
noticing before his “inspiration” had come to him,
that the berries looked slightly over-ripe. Now he
told himself that they might easily have been on
the table for several hours, when he and Manners
ﬁrst boarded the yacht. Somewhat boyishly, per-
haps, he had bought a new notebook in Gibraltar;
and he put down as his ﬁrst entry: “ Strawberries
over-ripe.” The next went in after an inspection of
the dishes which had been served for the meal, and
taken back to the galley with the changing of the
courses.
Neither dishes nor pots and pans had been
washed, and Peter jotted down in his book: “ Soup,
ﬁsh, chicken, potato croquette; entée of some sort;
asparagus; remains of cream-ice in freezer; jelly;
cheese. More probably lunch; not courses enough
for dinner.” Then he half smiled as he read his
own notes. “ If a stranger opened the book at this
page, he would take me for a cook,” he said to him-
self.


WHAT KNIGHT FOUND 71
On a shelf in the principal galley were a number
of wine glasses which had been used, and set aside
to be washed. There were two exquisite, slender-
stemmed bubbles of jewelled Venetian glass, in-
tended for white wine; there were two for claret
but none for champagne; and the port glasses had
been left by the plates on the table in the saloon.
In the china cupboard at which Peter presently ar-
rived, there were various other sorts of glasses,
enough to make up (including those which stood
outside, unwashed) a dozen of each kind. This
rule had, however, one exception. Peter counted
the champagne glasses in the cupboard, and found
only ten. Now, the question arose: had two cham-
pagne glasses been broken during the voyage, or had
two been used during that last meal, and for some
purpose destroyed?
On the table in the larger galley stood a slim
bottle of Liebfraumilch, half empty, and a bottle
of Chateau Larose, scarcely touched. Evidently
these were to have been the perquisite of the chef
and the steward; and in the dining saloon, on a
sideboard, the cobwebbed port still reclined in its
basket. N0 used champagne bottles were visible
anywhere; but just as Peter was beginning to dis-
miss the thought of the two missing glasses, he
came upon something which revived suspicion in his
mind. He had left the galley, had returned to the
saloon, and suddenly bethought himself of look-


72 A SECRET OF THE SEA
ing under the dining table. Cursory search had
been made there before, with the grim idea of
ﬁnding hidden bodies; but now Peter peered care-
fully about in the hope of coming upon some small
object—a dropped handkerchief perhaps, with a
name or monogram, or possibly a forgotten letter.
What he looked for he did not ﬁnd; but something
bright caught his eye, and with a slight ejacula-
tion of triumph, he picked up a silver-headed cork-
screw, deeply embedded in a champagne cork.
“ So! ” he said to himself, “ they did have chain-
pagne. Now, why have the glasses and bottle dis-
appeared?”
He sat down, with the corkscrew in his hand, and
began to think things over, sending his mind back
to the time before the Xenia became a forlorn, mys-
terious derelict, and straining his imagination to
people her with passengers and crew.
“The owner of the yacht was a millionaire, and
he was eccentric,” Peter said to himself. “ So much
I may take for granted in the beginning; or cir-
cumstantial evidence is more than usually tricky if
I’m deceived as to that. All the arrangements of
the yacht and its appointments simply shout:
‘ Money and eccentricity.’ It’s no use thinking that
the yacht may have belonged to the lady and that the
man was her guest, instead of vice versa. The
plainness Of his stateroom and the magniﬁcence of
hers show that he was the host, scorning luxurious


WHAT KNIGHT FOUND 73
personal surroundings, but lavish with his money
and gorgeous in his taste for the beneﬁt of others.
Now, would such a man—rich, peculiar, fond of
power, spoiled, perhaps by prosperity—have been
a pleasant master to serve? Is it possible that some
one in his employ on the yacht hated him for an
act of tyranny or injustice, and planned to murder
him, with his wife? But why, then, do away with
every soul on board? Was there no means of ob-
taining a cheaper revenge? Besides, the owner of
the yacht would not have come into close contact
with any member of the crew, and could hardly
have excited such deadly hatred. The captain might
have disliked him; but captains of private yachts
aren’t the sort of men to commit wholesale murder;
following up such a supposition is a waste of time
and gray matter. A valet, perhaps? More likely,
but how could the owner’s valet succeed not only
in destroying his master, and his master’s wife or
guest, but more than a dozen other people besides? ”
Again, the despairing sensation of having strayed
into a blind alley, just as he hoped that he had
found his way out into the right road, fell coldly
upon Knight. Still, there was this new clue, the
champagne cork, rendered important by the fact that
the bottle and glasses had mysteriously vanished.
If there had been poison in the champagne, that
would account for their disappearance. A clever
poisoner would wish to destroy all traces of his


74 A SECRET OF THE SEA
crime; but even a clever criminal is apt to drop
some stitch in his fabric; and the cork under the
table—the one proof that champagne had been
drunk at that last meal—might have been the
dropped stitch.
Knight began again, and determined to argue
from the standpoint that the master of the Xenia
and the woman who was with him had been de-
stroyed by means of poison in the champagne. The
cork under the table bore witness that the wine had
been opened in the saloon, not outside, and this de-
tail seemed to point to the dining-room steward as
the poisoner. He and the chef were the only men
who would have found it comparatively simple to
get rid of everyone on board by means of poison.
But why should they have desired such wholesale
slaughter? why had they left so many valuables un-
touched? how had they disposed of their victims?
how had they ﬁnally escaped in the end, since none
of the yacht’s boats were missing? and what con-
nection had the packing case in the storeroom, and
the broken cage on the deck, with the extraordi-
nary crime?
“ Grant that some person unknown, on board this
yacht, had a motive strong enough to prompt the
murder of the owner,” Knight said to himself, still
turning over the silver corkscrew between his ﬁn-
gers, “ would it be necessary for him to kill every-
body else in order to escape suspicion? If he were


WHAT KNIGHT FOUND 75
known to have a grudge against the man it would,
no doubt; or if, by this occupation alone, suspicion
would be likely to fall upon him, as it would upon
the cook or a steward in case of murder by poison.
Yes, a cook or a steward would be the ﬁrst man
to be suspected. But if either one had committed
the crime on the spur of hatred, his passion would
have died before he could accomplish the destruc-
tion of more than a dozen others. His motive for
murder must have been deeper than a mere grudge,
a mere passionate desire for revenge, before he
could deliberately have planned to seek satisfac-
tion, and save himself, by wiping out all traces of a
crime. For that is what has been done, if I am
right in thinking that every soul on board has per-
ished through one man’s crime. Not only did that
man scheme to hide his part in the plot, but to hide
the fact that there had been a plot at all. So far
there is absolutely nothing, save this champagne
cork, to hint that passengers and crew did not aban-
don the yacht of their own free will; and there’s
no real clue of the suspicion against one of the miss-
ing men more than another.”
Again Knight stared at the swelled cork, speared
on the spiral of bright metal; and his eyes fastened
on an inﬁnitesimal red spot which until now they
had passed over.


CHAPTER VIII
was HE ON THE TRACK?
HE red spot was a spot of blood, which, curi-
ously enough, had dried into a shape somewhat
resembling a tiny heart; and looking at it, Peter’s
veins thrilled. It was as if a magnetic current
ran through the silver-handled corkscrew into his
ﬁngers, communicating the tremor felt by the hand
which had held it last.
“It was the man who opened the champagne-
bottle who committed the murders,” Peter said to
himself, half aloud. He knew that in asserting this
so conﬁdently he was springing to a conclusion
scarcely justiﬁed by any evidence which he had
found. But he was picturing the scene, even put-
ting himself in the place of the murderer as he
carried out a hideous, self-appointed task. Peter
Knight’s nature was peculiarly sensitive and imag-
inative. Possibly the mystery which surrounded his
own early childhood had exaggerated certain ten-
dencies, but be that as it might, he was extraordi-
narily quick to feel outside inﬂuences. He felt in-
stinctively things which slower men would be obliged
to work out by rule, and his impressions were seldom

76


WAS HE ON THE TRACK? 77
wrong. His vivid imagination took the form of
sympathy; for as he could always imagine how
others must feel in any given circumstances, it was
easy for him to put himself in another man’s place,
for the moment. This is the faculty which is most
valuable to writers of ﬁction; and though Peter
Knight had never thought of writing stories he now
began to live one.
He remembered how Edgar Allan Poe had said
that by imitating closely the facial expression worn
by a person whose thoughts you wished to read, you
might at length arrive at his state of mind when
committing certain a-cts. Peter could not call up
the murderer’s expression, since he had never seen
his face; but he knew the surroundings in which
the crime (if crime there had been) must have
been committed; he would have staked his life that
the motive for such a crime must have been over-
whelmingly strong to nerve a man’s soul to it;
and holding the blood-stained corkscrew in his hand
as if it had been an electric battery communicating
with some strange thought-machine, he strove his ut-
most to deduce by intuition the state of the mur-
derer’s mind, and the deeds committed, one after
another, because of that mental condition.
“He came on board meaning to do it,” Peter
went on, his eyes dreamy and introspective. “Yes,
it must have been so. Nothing bad enough could
have happened on the trip to incite him to such


78 A SECRET OF THE SEA
horrors. He had it all planned out. He must
have had to wait till the time was favourable-—
perhaps till the weather was fair, and the yacht
near enough to land for him to have good hope of
getting away, somehow—just how I can’t guess
yet. But say that the time has come; he has every-
thing ready; it is now or never. He doesn’t want
violence; he has decided upon poison. Yes, it must
have been the cook. But no common cook. The
mind of a genius in crime has planned this coup. He
engaged on the yacht as cook; that was it. But how
did a cook contrive to come into the dining saloon,
and open a bottle of champagne for his master’s
luncheon, when that sort of thing is the steward’s
work? To manage it, he must have been a persona
gram on board— a skilled chef, no doubt; or else
the steward was ill. I!!! Does that mean that the
work of poisoning had begun ﬁrst among the serv-
ants and the crew? If it had, the murderer’s thou-
sand difiiculties would have been lessened, perhaps.
If everybody on board were hors de combat before
the owner and the lady were disposed of, there
would be only those two against him, if worst came
to worst.
“ Heavens! Imagine them all dead, just the two
in the dining saloon left, calmly eating their lunch-
eon, never dreaming that they were surrounded with
corpses — that soon they were destined to be corpses
too. How must the man have felt who planned


WAS HE ON THE TRACK? 79
it all, who was slowly, surely, carrying out his plans
to the end?
“Wine or liqueur of some kind was probably
the safest vehicle for the poi-son he had chosen, or
else he would have put it in the food — which would
so much have simpliﬁed things for him. It had to
be wine; therefore it was necessary for the murderer
to come into the dining saloon himself, and open
the bottle. Of course, he and a steward might have
been confederates; but I don’t believe that was true.
A genius in crime prefers to work without help;
he wouldn’t dare trust any one except himself. No
wonder his hand trembled as he drew this cork. He
couldn’t control his nerves, and broke the neck of
the bottle, perhaps cutting his hand. But he
wouldn’t have felt the pain. He would have had
the poison within reach and he would have had to
keep his countenance while he poured out the wine.
“ Suppose that they drank it. They weren’t af-
fected at ﬁrst, for they evidently went on with the
meal, till they came to the dessert. All this time
the cook — if he were playing the steward’s part—
must have had to come and go, bringing in dishes,
carrying them out, wondering whether all would
be well, and when the thing that he was waiting for
would happen. By this time, perhaps, the man at
the wheel was dead, and the Xenia was at the mercy
of the sea, as she was when we saw her ﬁrst. Who
can tell what followed then? Those napkins,


80 A SECRET OF THE SEA
dropped under the table; did they fall from dead
hands, or did the master of the yacht—not know-
ing yet that he must die — leave his place to see what
was wrong above, and did the woman follow? ”
This last thought appealed to Knight. He
seemed to see a man’s ﬁgure springing from the
table, rushing up the companion, and out on to the
white deck. What a sight must have met him
there! Dead men for his crew, the wheel deserted,
and the canvas ﬂapping mournfully.
Involuntarily, Peter rose from the seat he had
taken at the head of the table, the one in which the
master of the yacht had sat for his last meal.
Almost as if he followed a visible form, he went
up the companion, and on to the deck, as in his
fancy the dying master of the Xenia had gone.
“The poor wretch may have fallen here,” Peter
said to himself; “fallen and died knowing at last
that he was murdered.”
Involuntarily the young man stopped abruptly,
as though he could see a corpse lying at his feet;
and, looking up, he realized that he stood in front
of, and close to, the great broken iron cage.
For some reason, which he could hardly have de-
ﬁned, this discovery brought with it a shock. Peter
felt suddenly cold and tingling all over, as if some-
thing tremendous had happened or were about to
happen. Again, for him, the mystery of the yacht
seemed an incarnate, though invisible shape, crouch-


WAS HE ON THE TRACK? 81
ing behind the broken door of the cage- If but for
a moment it would become visible, and give itself
to his eyes, he would be, he thought, more than half-
way toward the end of the journey which should
take him at last to Betty Manners. What animal
had been the prisoner of that cage, what had it seen
of the tragedy, and, above all, what part taken in
it? Always Peter was brought back to that ques-
tion, as a man lost in the woods comes again to the
same starting point after trying many devious paths.
No answer was forthcoming; but the young man
felt that he had gained something. At least he had
found a theory to which no insuperable objection had
presented itself, as had invariably happened before.
That “ inspiration ” of his, during his conversation
with Manners, was still the foundation on which
he stood. He had snatched then at the idea of a
master of murder; no feeble, revengeful cur who
snaps at the hand which has given blows instead of
food; but~ a genius, with an unrelenting purpose
to work out, and no human scruples as to the way of
working it. He was building the theory up, step by
step, on this foundation; and, to his mind, no stone
tested had as yet proved defective.
His courage rose. So far, only thirty-four hours
had passe-d since he undertook his mission, and not
one of those hours had been wasted. Of course, at
any moment he might come upon a discovery which
would overthrow all his deductions, as by an earth-


82 A SECRET OF THE SEA
quake; but even so, he was training his mind in de-
tective work. With each step he had taken he felt
more conﬁdence in himself and his own powers of
judgment. One thing led up to another. He be-
lieved now that he was teaching himself to miss no
points, even the smallest. At all events, right or
wrong, he deterrhined that unless again he should
stumble against another blank wall, he would con-
tinue to work on his present lines; that is, on the
supposition that a master villain had destroyed
everyone on board the X enia, not through madness,
not through a vulgar desire for revenge, but sim-
ply as the one means toward a great end.
Sitting on deck, Peter made many more entries
in his new notebook, lest he should inadvertently
drop some ﬁne thread, and forget to pick it up again.
When he had put his various deductions down on
paper, in the form of queries, with a suggestive in-
terrogation point after each one, he began to ask
himself a series of questions. Granted that a whole-
sale murder had been committed on the Xenia how
had the murderer disposed of the bodies of his
victims? why had he destroyed all papers and
everything on board which could lead to the identi-
ﬁcation of the yacht? and how had he himself
escaped?
It seemed to Peter that the least elaborate theory
regarding the disappearance of the papers was most
likely to be the right one. The murderer must have


WAS HE ON THE TRACK? 83
argued in making his plans, that sooner or later,
the Xenia would be found a hopeless derelict. He
would have realized that, if the theory of murder
were accepted, his own hope of escape would be
greatly decreased. Those who made it their busi-
ness to solve the mystery would search for the es-
caped murderers, and the chance was that, were he
on land or sea, sooner or later they would ﬁnd him.
The man would have thought this out, and said to
himself that if the desertion of the Xenia could be
made to appear an unsolvable mystery of the sea
—if there were no reason to suppose that there
had been a crime, or that any one had escaped -— he
would remain comparatively safe. If no papers
were found, identiﬁcation of the yacht would be
diﬁicult, and would take time. Meanwhile, he
would be so much the farther on his way to free-
dom.
These arguments, Knight thought, might account
for the vanishing of all oﬁicial documents and let-
ters.
As for the disposal of the bodies, to prevent the
danger of their ﬂoating, and thus telling the only
tale which dead men can tell, it would have been
necessary to weight each corpse. Peter wondered
if material for this purpose could have been secreted
under the grating in the big packing case; but he
speedily dismissed this idea as too far-fetched.
There would have been plenty of stuff which might


84 A SECRET OF THE SEA
be made to answer such a grim purpose without the
necessity for bringing it on board. He decided that
the packing case must have been dedicated to uses
more important, but what these were he could not
yet guess. Only one thing was he sure of—the
packing case had something to do with the mystery,
and it had been brought on board the Xenia by
order of the murderer. As for the manner of es-
cape of this master villain, it absolutely baﬂled
Knight.
The man must have been mad to dream of swim-
ming ashore at such a distance from land; and it
seemed to Peter that he had been very far from
madness. Even with a life-belt the hope of reach-
ing shore without a boat would have been small in
the extreme; yet all the Xenia’s boats were in their
places; and Peter could not argue away his convic-
tion that such a man would have worked out a plan
of escape more clever and less obvious. Had one
of the yacht’s boats been missing, the presumption
would have been that some one on board had got
away with knowledge of the derelict’s strange secret,
and the attention of the world would have been
turned to ﬁnding that some one.
In spite of all these precautions, however, Peter
was of opinion that the identity of the yacht and
her owner, at least, must speedily be known. There
had been fresh vegetables, ﬂowers, and fruit on
board, therefore the Xenia must have touched some-


IVAS HE ON THE TRACK? 85
where only a few hours before the tragedy and the
efforts of the captain of the port at Gibraltar to
obtain information would doubtless soon be re-
warded.
Almost as if in answer to this last thought came
a shout from a little boat under the lee of the yacht.
“ From the captain of the port, sir,” called a sailor,
holding up a letter at sight of Peter on the Xenia’s
deck.


CHAPTER IX
THE SOUND BEHIND THE DOOR
EWVS of the Xenia had come from Tangier in
answer to inquiries made by the captain of
the port at Gibraltar. No sooner had he heard,
than he had sent a letter to Knight, out of courtesy to
his old friend Manners, whose agent Knight was.
But the news was disappointing.
The Xenia had called at Tangier. She had
dropped anchor at some distance from shore, sent
in a boat, and bought certain supplies from mer-
chants in the town. Immediately afterward she
had sailed and had been seen about eleven o’clock
in the morning, the weather being calm, with all
canvas spread, making northwest toward Gibral-
tar.
Two sailors had rowed the boat sent for sup-
plies and a middle-aged man in plain clothes, who
might have been a steward or a purser, had bought
vegetables, fruit, milk, and bread. He had spoken
French at the various shops in Tangier which he
had visited, had paid for his purchases in Moorish
money, and had volunteered no information con-
cerning the yacht or those on board, except to say
86v


88 A SECRET OF THE SEA
In his eagerness for success, each idle moment was
to Peter’s mind a moment wasted; and when he had
read his letter and sent back an answer of thanks for
the courtesy, he was all eagerness to take up the
thread of his deductions where it had been broken
oﬂ. He was working now upon his newly formed
theory that the owner of the yacht and the mysteri-
ous lady had been given poison in champagne, that to
hide all traces of the poison the bottle and the two
used glasses had been thrown overboard. The next
question was, by what means had the eighteen or
nineteen other persons been destroyed? There were
the captain and his ﬁrst ofﬁcer to account for; twelve
men in the crew; one or two stewards; an assistant
cook, a valet, and a maid. All these persons would
have had to be got rid of if no incriminating tales
were to be told, and doubtless had been got rid of,
since they had disappeared. The murders must
have been more or less simultaneous, otherwise there
would have been a general alarm; and apparently
there had been nothing of the kind. All had been
well ordered and calmly carried out. The doomed
persons had died; and the murderer, alone among
his victims, must have spent hours in weighting the
bodies and throwing them overboard. It was be-
cause of the tedious time which must have been oc-
cupied by this grim task alone that Knight supposed
the last meal eaten on board to have been luncheon,
not dinner. And the fact that all the lights had


THE SOUND BEHIND THE DOOR 89
been turned 05, except in the dining saloon, where
the murderer might have been working late, also
suggested that everyone else had gone from the
yacht before nightfall.
Wine, which must be uncorked in the dining
saloon, would have been the most difﬁcult vehicle for
poison, which could be adopted; therefore wine or
ﬂuid of some sort must have been the only one suit-
able; and Peter decided to take it for granted at
present that the other victims had been given their
death in the same way. But it was not reasonable
to suppose that champagne had been sent round
to everyone on board, and it was diﬂicult to guess by
what excuse drinks of any kind had been served out
to all hands, at once, unless—and with that “ un-
less ” Peter was forced to pause. There must have
been an “ unless ” of some sort; what was it, then?
Suppose it had been a féte day. Suppose the mur-
derer had waited for that, to do the deed which he
had planned? A man as venomously clever as the
idea made incarnate by Peter, might have arranged
a general drinking of healths at the same moment.
If it had been the birthday of the Xenia’s owner, or
the unknown lady, such a plot could have been car-
ried out, and it might easily have been part of
the programme that, at a given minute, everyone
should raise his glass to his lips, with a good wish.
“ By Jove! I believe I’ve struck it!” Peter ex-
claimed as he went on another excursion to the


90 A SECRET OF THE SEA
galleys—perhaps the sixth he had made that day.
He began to be pleased with the quick working of
his own mind, but at each throb of self-gratulation
he had only to remind himself that at best it was
all supposition, that he might never, so long as he
lived, be able to prove any of his ideas correct, no
matter how certain that they were right; he had
only to remind himself of this for the beating of his
pulses to subside.
Nevertheless, each deduction was worth testing.
This time he began investigations among the dishes
sacred to the forecastle, and could have shouted with
triumph when he found only four thick glass tum-
blers. There must have been a dozen others for
the crew alone; yet none was to be found after a
search. Something had been drunk Peter assured
himself, and the glasses thrown away. He found
no empty bottles, however, and was rewarded by
discovering no more corks. Only that one little
clue in the dining saloon had been forgotten. But
there was the captain’s cabin. That had not been
explored since Knight had begun to work out his
new idea, and now he returned to it. There was
neither glass nor bottle there; but on the top of
the desk, when he bent for a careful examination of
the polished wood, was a small, dull spot, as if some
liquid had fallen in drops, and evaporated ﬁnally,
without having been wiped away. Peter rubbed the
stain with his ﬁnger, and found it sticky. He


THE SOUND BEHIND THE DOOR 9r
smelled it, and thought that he detected an odour
of stale claret.
“ Perhaps the ﬁrst ofﬁcer was on watch, and wine
was brought to the captain here to drink some one’s
health,” the young man argued. As for the man
at the wheel, and the ﬁrst ofﬁcer, they might have
been given their dose of death before they went on
duty.
Here was more material for the notebook. By
this time twilight was falling—twilight of Peter
Knight’s ﬁrst day of independent detective work on
the Xenia. He was not alone on the yacht. Two
men had been sent on board by the captain of the
port to watch the derelict for the British Govern-
ment, which was responsible for her until she should
be claimed by persons yet unknown. As the galleys
were not to be disturbed for the present, no cooking
could be done on board. The men would take turns
in going ashore for their principal meals, and Peter
intended to do the same, but he was not inclined to
stop work for such a trifle as dinner. The men had
bread and cheese and beer, and he knew that he
might ask for something from them if hunger
pressed. He was not convinced that the lonely
search made by Manners in the staterooms and the
saloon drawing room had been exhaustive; and de-
termined, now that he had a free hand, to go thor-
oughly over the same ground himself. He turned
on the light in the saloon, and took up one by one


. 92 A SECRET OF THE SEA
the journals and magazines lying on the small table
by the divan. A Greek daily paper was the latest
in date, and that was four weeks old. On a set of
bookshelves were many books in French and English;
but in none of them, nor in the novel lying open, was
any name written.
Peter was on the point of walking away to an-
other part of the room, when the faint, sweet per-
fume still hanging about the piled silk cushions on the
divan arrested him as if it had been an unseen pres-
ence. He bent down, drawing in the fragrance with
a long, deep breath, when something that glittered
in the light like a thread of gold caught his eye.
It was a curling, yellow hair, very long and ﬁne,
twisted round a prominent ﬂower petal of embrOid-
ery. Peter disentangled it carefully, and wound it
up into a delicate shining ring, which he put away in
his notebook.
The perfume of the vanished woman’s presence,
the glint of the gold hair, seemed to bring her near
to Peter Knight. He saw her, young and beautiful,
and he did not believe that she was the Elizabeth
Desmond whom Manners had loved a quarter of a
century ago. Elizabeth Desmond’s hair would have
been gray; she would have been almost an old woman
now. Still, whether this woman of mystery were
Manners’s lost bride or not, the bargain would hold.
He -— Peter — had but to discover what the connec-
tion had been between the owner of the mono-


THE SOUND BEHIND THE DOOR 93
grammed watch and the woman whoSe face was in-
side, and the promised reward — that “ chance ” for
which he was ready to sacriﬁce so much— was his.
The watch lay no longer on the dressing table in
the deserted stateroom. Peter knew that Manners
had taken it away without speaking of its existence
to any one but him. He had not been allowed to
examine the hidden face inside; its beauty had no
doubt been too sacred to Manners for other eyes
to see. Everything else, however, had been left un-
touched in the staterooms, unless Manners had de-
liberately deceived him; and Peter wondered
whether, among all the trinkets and clothing in the
wardrobes there were not something which might
give a clue to the trained eye of a professional de-
tective. In the man’s coats, for instance, the tailor’s
name would be of some value as a means of identi-
ﬁcation. Nobody seemed to have thought of that
yet, though it was obvious enough. And the wo-
man’s gowns —- sur‘ely fashionable dressmakers must
put their hall-mark somewhere upon their choice
“ creations ”? And they would remember what had
gone out of their establishments to important clients
within the past few months.
Peter half smiled at himself for his restlessness.
Within the course of the last two hours he had been
here, there, and everywhere on the yacht, except into
the two unused staterooms, one of which he had
taken for his own use, during the uncertain period of


94 A SECRET OF THE SEA
his residence on the yacht. Now he could not rest
in the saloon, but must have a look at the contents
of those wardrobes. He meant to go ﬁrst to the
man’s stateroom, where the watch had been found,
and the ring with that strangely familiar motto,
“My honour is my life,” but something impelled
him to walk ﬁrst to the door of the woman’s cabin.
He turned the handle, pushed the door open, and
was startled to hear a sly, rustling sound on the
other side.


CHAPTER X
THE WOMAN IN THE LUGGAGE BOAT
ETTY MANNERS said very little when she
found that she had been tricked by her father,
and that the Naiad had left Peter Knight behind,
in steaming away from Gibraltar.
Manners had assured her that, if she would con-
sent to please him by breakfasting in her stateroom,
and remaining there for a certain length of time aft-
erward, she might see Knight “ as often as she had
the chance,” intimating that he would no longer
throw obstacles in the way of their meeting. She
had been induced to take him literally, and had been
faithful to her part Of the agreement only to ﬁnd
that she was to be paid in counterfeit coin. Man-
ners had not lied in so many words, but his conces-
sions were worthless, and he had known when he
offered them that they would be worthless.
Some girls would have revenged themselves by a
ﬁt of sulks or hysterics; and Manners had been pre-
pared for a “scene” of some sort. He had re-
solved to laugh it all off as a kind of joke, poke at
little good-natured fun at the love affair, take refuge
95


96 A SECRET OF THE SEA
in a proverb or two, such as “ Hot love is soon
cold ”; and later show himself particularly indulgent
in the matter of jewellery and cheques. This treat-
ment, he was of opinion, would soon clear the air
after the expected storm; but the storm did not come,
and he was at the same time agreeably disappointed
and puzzled. He did not know Betty very well,
after all. He was a busy man, whose life was made
up of a thousand interests. She had passed the last
four years at school in Paris, therefore since she had
been a little girl in short dresses with a long tail of
corn-yellow hair reaching below her waist, they had
seen nothing of each other until a few months ago.
When Betty came home to him from school, he had
been astonished by her beauty, amused by her girlish
wit, and secretly struck with admiration of her spirit
and originality. He had loved but one woman, and
he knew nothing of girls. It did not occur to him
that, knowing men as he did, he could possibly ﬁnd
himself baﬂled by a female child of eighteen; and
though he was surprised to ﬁnd that Betty took the
sharp trick he had played almost without a word of
reproach, merely shrugging her pretty shoulders
and tightening her lips when she discovered that her
lover had been banished, he told himself that she
was conducting herself like a sensible little girl, and
deserved to be rewarded for good conduct.
This was her ﬁrst trip abroad, and Tangier was
an exceedingly picturesque place. Manners in-


THE WOMAN IN THE BOAT 97
tended to stay there at least a couple of days, and
he believed that the strange, many-hued panorama
of Eastern life would fascinate the child int-o forget-
fulness. All women were primitive savages at
heart, and Betty was only a little superior to the
rest. ‘ She would be delighted with the gaudy, bar-
baric jewels he would give her; he and she and Lord
Umberleigh and Lady Haldon would all go shop-
ping together in the musk-scented Oriental bazaars,
and Betty would ﬁnd that it was quite possible to be
happy without Peter Knight.
As for Peter, he was rather a ﬁne fellow, but too
heavily handicapped. Manners had faith in Peter
to a certain extent— a faith which he told himself
irritably, was almost superstitious, certainly unjus-
tiﬁed; but he wanted to get all he could out of the
young man, without paying an exorbitant price. He
hoped that Peter would succeed in unravelling the
secret of the yacht and the other mystery woven
in with it so strangely. It was necessary for this
that Peter should have a powerful incentive; but
Manners’s conscience was clear, as he had merely
promised a “chance,” over and above the offered
hundred thousand dollars. If, when Peter came to
him with the kernel of mystery dug out of the nut-
shell, Betty should already be engaged or on the way
toward being engaged to Lord Umberleigh, why, it
would not be her father’s fault. Peter Knight could
not say that his employer had played him false and


98 A SECRET OF THE SEA
yet he— Manners — would have got what he
wanted.
This being his point of view, he ceased to wonder
at Betty’s calmness, and was grateful to her for spar-
ing him unpleasant moments. But had he been
shrewd enough to penetrate beneath the surface of
those shadowy gray lakes which were Betty’s eyes,
he would have learned a fact concerning his daugh-
ter valuable for a father to know. She was not
more complex than other bright, well-educated girls
of her age and class, perhaps; but being at least one
thousand times more complicated than Manners
dreamed, she held a certain advantage over him.
They stood together on the deck of the Naiad
when a question or two from her and an answer or
two from him put the girl into possession of the
truth about Peter Knight. Her ﬁrst impulse was
a child’s impulse. She was so angry with her father
for deceiving her, that she would have liked to strike
him and cry out that she hated him for what he had
done. Then a cold contempt of his conduct swept
over her. He had taken cruel advantage of her
trustfulness, and it seemed to Betty that nothing
could ever be the same between them again. She
could forgive perhaps, by-and-by, but the faith she
had lost could never, never come back. A curious
feeling of pity for the man, because he was so dense,
and did not understand what he had done, or what
he had irrevocably lost, mingled with her resent-


THE WOMAN IN THE BOAT 99
ment. He would only laugh at her, and it would be
what he expected if she cried or raged. She would
not be a child, but a woman; childhood lay behind
her since yesterday. Her father had no right to
expect conﬁdence from her now. She could not de-
ceive him as he had deceived her; that would be
mean, unworthy of the woman whom Peter Knight
loved. But she would not be cheated of her happi-
ness. Peter should not be left to believe that she
had gone away contentedly as if last night had never
been. He should not be allowed to suﬁer in think-
ing that she was forgetting him for Lord Umber-
leigh, as her father evidently wished her to do.
Somehow, when they reached Tangier, she would
ﬁnd a way of sending a message back to Gibraltar,
just a word to warm Peter’s heart with the knowl-
edge that, whatever happened she would be true.
Exactly how she was to manage this Betty did not
know; for to write to the banished lover was the
obvious thing for a girl to do, and she was sure her
father expected and meant to prevent it from hap-
pening in her case. Thus she was thinking, as she
stood leaning on the rail watching the sphinx-like
form of Gibraltar crouch lower and lower on the
horizon; and into the midst of her thoughts spoke
Manners.
“Look here, little girl,” he said, rather uncom-
fortably; “ you’re a trump you know, and I’m might-
ily pleased with you. But there’s no reason for
82’ 23B


100 A SECRET OF THE SEA
‘paying me back in my own coin,’ as you’d call it,
eh? You aren’t planning to write love-letters be-
hind my back? Promise you won’t try that game.”
“ I won’t promise anything, father,” she answered
steadily; and he was too preoccupied to notice that
the pet name of “dad” which had been his until
now, was withheld.
“ You won’t promise? Well, that’s straightfor-
ward, anyhow. I suppose, then, I must see that you
don’t get a chance, until the time comes when you
couldn’t be bothered writing love-letters to a chap
like Peter Knight, that’s all. And I’m out of my
reckoning if that time doesn’t come sooner than you
think.”
Betty did not reply; but her father knew her si-
lence was not a sign that she sulked, because, when
he abruptly changed the subject, and talked about
Tangier and Lord Umberleigh she answered pleas-
antly, even laughing at one or two rather far-fetched
jokes.
“ How will she behave to Umberleigh, though? ”
Manners asked himself, with some uneasiness, when
the girl had left him. But he need not have been
anxious.
It was getting on toward eight o’clock and din-
ner time when the Naiad reached Tangier, having
been delayed more than twelve hours by the adven-
ture with the derelict. A telegram had been sent
that morning to Lord Umberleigh from Gibraltar,


THE WOMAN IN THE BOAT 101
however, and soon after the N aiad let go her anchor,
Manners knocked at the door of his daughter’s state-
room.
“ Betty, are you ready? ” he asked. “ Lady Hal- ‘
don, and Umberleigh are coming out to us in a boat
with another full of luggage, and they will be on
board in six or eight minutes.”
“ I’m ready,” said the girl, and opened the door.
It had been in Manners’s mind that she might
have chosen to punish him by looking her worst for
Peter Knight’s rival, but she was exquisitely dressed.
Perhaps she had been even prettier in her simple
white frock the night before, but she was “ smarter ”
now. Her hair was done differently, piled on top
of her little head, instead of being coiled at the nape
of the neck, as before, and altogether she seemed
less child and more woman.
“ You shall have some big engraved turquoises
to wear with that blue gown to-morrow, if you like,”
said Manners. “A belt and a necklace. We’ll
ﬁnd beauties at Tangier. Umberleigh shall help us
choose. He should be a good judge of that kind of
thing.” He slipped his hand under the girl’s white
arm, though she shrank from him slightly, and led
her up on deck to the gangway, which was already
being let down. “ Here they are!” he exclaimed.
“ See, they’re waving to us. H’m, Lady Haldon
seems to be bringing two maids. One of them she
must have picked up out here in the East, judging


102 A SECRET OF THE SEA
by the costume. Well, I suppose we can make room
for her somehow.”
As he spoke the four brown-faced Moorish row-
ers brought the ﬁrst boat to the foot of the gang-
way. In it sat a pretty, passée woman in exceed-
ingly fashionable half mourning, and a very hand-
some, fair, young man, who rose up and waved his
Panama hat to Betty and her father. Close behind
was another boat containing a couple of elaborate
boxes, a leather portmanteau, two or three bags, a
valet, a French maid, and a statue-like form
shrouded in the white haick and veil of a Moorish or
Arab woman of the middle class. As Betty bent
over the rail to see Lady Haldon spring from the
dancing boat to the lowest step of the gangway, the
white, motionless ﬁgure in the second boat stole her
attention away from the coming guest, and held it
for an instant. From between the forehead-band
and the yashmak a pair of sombre eyes looked out,
and met Betty’s. The Eastern woman could be only
a maid, of course, as Manners had said; but
shrouded as she was in her white draperies, she was
an impressive ﬁgure. No doubt, Betty told herself,
it was the costume which gave an air of stateliness
and mystery to a woman commonplace enough in
herself; still, even while the girl greeted her guests,
she thought of the white form seated with the
dignity of a captive queen in the boat with the
luggage.


THE WOMAN IN THE BOAT 103
“Well, what an adventure you have had! ” ex-
claimed Lady H-aldon, shaking hands with Manners
and kissing Betty with empressement. “ That tele-
gram you sent to Ian this morning was so exciting!
And some of the government people must have
wired, too, for the news about your derelict is all
over Tangier. Everybody seems to be talking about
it. It appears she called here only yesterday— at
least, she sent in a boat, and bought things; but no
one knows anything about her. It’s the most ex-
traordinary mystery. Betty dear, how sweet you
are looking! And that reminds me, I have taken
such a liberty. I hope I haven’t done wrong, Mr.
Manners, to bring you a woman with some fascinat-
ing jewels for sale. I bought a ring from her this
afternoon; and she had oﬁers for all her best things.
I was afraid that, if I waited to tell you about her,
and trusted your having the chance still in the morn-
ing, she might have nothing left worth buying; so
when she suggested coming out to the yacht, I
brought her. The boat will wait and take her back.
I hope you don’t mind? ”
“ On the contrary, I’m delighted,” said Manners.
“ I was just promising Betty something good in the
way of jewellery. No doubt your protégée’s wares
are much better than we could ﬁnd in the shops.
We thought you were bringing a Moorish maid on
board.”
As he spoke, the white ﬁgure came up the gang-


104 A SECRET OF THE SEA
way and once more Betty met the sombre eyes in
the hidden face. They looked at the‘ girl intently,
as if they had a message for her, and her alone.


CHAPTER XI
THE TOPAZ
HE veiled woman lingered in the background,
when she had come on deck, as if —with the
slow patience of the East —- she could bide her time
for the business which had brought her to the yacht.
Lady Haldon chatted to Manners, and Lord Umber-
leigh talked to Betty, and it was not until the maid
and the valet had been sent below, and the luggage
got out of the way, that the jewel-seller’s time came.
“ Shall we look at her things?” Betty asked,
rather shyly, fearing that, as hostess, she had not
given enough attention to welcoming her guests.
“Oh, please do! ” exclaimed Lady Haldon, who
was always eager and excited, so much so, that she
“ got upon the nerves” of some people. “It will
soon be dinner time, I suppose; but Ian and I dressed
at the hotel, luckily, so we’ve nothing to do; and I,
for one, would love to help you choose.”
Manners beckoned to the woman, who stood
mutely at a distance.
“What jargon does she talk?” he inquired of
Lady Haldon. “ Has she a smattering of French? ”
“She speaks French very well,” Umberleigh an-
swered for his sister.
:05


106 A SECRET OF THE SEA
“ Good,” said the millionaire; and in his best
French, of which he was rather proud, he invited the
veiled woman to follow them all below to the saloon
and display her wares. ~
Without a word she obeyed, and presently was
opening a quaintly embroidered roll of chamois
leather, in a space cleared for the purpose on a table.
The roll had three pockets, one in the centre, one
on each side. From the ﬁrst, the dark hand (like
brown satin in contrast to the ﬂowing white sleeve)
took a string of pearls — large, white, and glistening
as dewdrops at sunrise. From one side pocket came
a tiara consisting of three diamond suns, arranged to
be separated if desired and worn as brooches or
pendants; from the other a curious necklace of
square engraved turquoises and gold scarabei, linked
together with double strings of tiny emeralds and
rubies. As the last was drawn from its resting place
something small and bright rolled out of the pocket
‘and fell upon the ﬂoor. Quick as a ﬂash of light the
white ﬁgure stooped to recover it, but Betty had a!-
ready picked it up, and was examining the thing
curiously.
It was a great, pale topaz, as large as a pigeon’s
egg and clear yellow, like Rhine wine; and it seemed
to Betty that it might be intended for a seal, though
there was no setting or handle. A heart was cut
into the stone, and beneath it, in old French, was en-
graved the motto: “ My honour is my life.”


THE TOPAZ 107
“That is not for sale, mademoiselle,” said the
veiled woman, speaking for the ﬁrst time in broken
French which gave the impression of lisping affec-
tation. “Everything else I have here can be
bought, but not that. It is of no value. But I
keep it as a fetish.”
So speaking, she held out a brown hand, the taper-
ing ﬁngers twitching with eagerness. Betty laid the
topaz accommodatineg in the open palm, while
everybody else examined the pearls, which Lady
Haldon was praising extravagantly in English. No
one but the girl had looked at the yellow stone closely
enough to see the motto.
“ Does it bring you luck, this fetish?” asked
Betty, more because she was fascinated by the deep
eyes, than because she cared for an answer to her
question.
“ I should lose my luck if I parted with it,” re-
plied the woman. She closed her ﬁngers tightly on
the topaz, ﬂashed a glance at the faces bending over
the contents of the chamois-leather case, and took a
swift, noiseless step nearer to Betty. “ If mademoi-
selle desires luck,” she said, hurriedly, in a low Voice,
“ I can tell her whether or not she will have it, if she
will see me alone for a few minutes, before I leave
this yacht. We women of the East have secrets
which are not known in the West. I can tell made-
moiselle’s fortune as she will never hear it told in
her own country.”


108 A SECRET OF THE SEA
Yesterday Betty Manners would have said that
she did not believe in fortune-telling, and she did
not exactly believe to-day; but wonderful things had
happened in the past four-and-twenty hours. Her
life was in a transition stage, and she longed to
know what the future held. Of course, this woman
could not really have supernatural powers, but the
girl told herself that it would be very interesting to
hear what she would say; above all, to know whether
she would describe a man like Peter Knight.
“I should love to have my fortune told,” said
Betty. “ What is it that you do? Shall I hold out
my hand for you to look at, or ”
“ I can tell you nothing now, or here,” hurriedly
returned the veiled woman. “Afterward, when
Monsieur your father has decided whether he will
buy something of me, perhaps you will let me go with
you to your cabin.”
“ How did you know it was my father?” asked
Betty.
“ If I could not see such triﬂing things as that I
would not be ﬁt to prophesy of the future,” replied
the hidden lips, from under the yashmak. “I will
tell the fortune of Madame also, if she wishes; but
she is no longer young, she has been married; what
is past is of more importance to her than what is
still to come. It is different with Mademoiselle.”
“ Come here and look at these things, Betty,” said
her father. “Lady Haldon has had all the prices


THE TOPAZ I 09
from the woman, and she is not extorti-onate like
most Eastern pedlars or merchants. She told Lady
Haldon at the hotel to-day, that she is selling the
jewels for the widow of a late Governor of Tangier,
who is in desperate straits for money. The pearls
are very good, and so are the turquoises. It won’t
break me to buy you both, if you fancy them.”
Betty read her father now far more clearly than
he had been able to read her. “This is to be his
peace-offering," she said to herself. “ If I take
these things from him, it will be as if he has bought
me away from Peter. No, I won’t have them.”
Aloud she remarked, demurely, that the pearls and
turquoises were very beautiful, but she did not care
much about jewels for herself. “ Now,” she
thought, childishly, “the woman will be angry and
tell me a bad fortune. I sha’n’t believe what she
says; still, I shall remember it and be unhappy. It’s
a pity, but it can’t be helped.”
Manners stared at his daughter in blank surprise.
He had not supposed that the woman lived who could
refuse such a present. He was angry with Betty for
her lack of appreciation, but he was fond of the girl,
and although ready to punish by apparently taking
her at her word, determined that in the end the
jewels should be hers.
“ Very well,” he said, stiﬁly. “ If you don’t want
them there are plenty of cousins and aunts at home
who will think differently.”


110 A SECRET OF THE SEA
He turned to the veiled woman, and changing
from English into laboured French, began half-
heartedly to try and beat down the price. But the
woman was inﬂexible; she would not sell for less;
she was, she insisted, merely acting as an agent; and
in the end the sum which she had asked for was
counted out in English bank notes and gold by Man-
ners. When the money lay on the table, instead of
taking it up, she placed beside it her chamois-skin
roll containing the diamond suns.
“I humbly ask to tell the ladies’ fortunes,” she
said. “ Since I have sold my employer’s jewels, I
will do it without pay; and to show that I am no
thief, nor a person to be feared, though I ask to
speak with each lady alone, I will leave on this table
both money and jewels, until I am ready to go away
from the yacht, in the boat that is waiting for me.”
“ Oh, nonsense,” began Manners; “they don’t
want their fortunes told.”
But Lady Haldon cut in upon his protest with a
little indignant shriek.
“ But we do—we do!” she cried. “ These
Eastern women are wonderful, you know; and this
one seems absolutely to breathe mystery. Back me
up, Betty.”
Manners’s eyes began to twinkle. He thought
that he scented a little plot. This woman of the
East had been brought on board by Umberleigh and
his sister. Very likely there was something under


THE TOPAZ III
Lady Haldon’s eagerness for this child’s play. She
or Umberleigh had probably bribed the woman to
tell Betty that she was destined to marry a fair man
who was a marquis, and that she would be superla-
tively happy as a marchioness. Girls like that sort
of thing. Lady Haldon would never forgive him
if he thwarted her little scheme, and if it wasn’t a
scheme after all, no harm would be done.
“ Very well,” he said. “ Cross the woman’s hand
with gold if it pleases you; but she had better be
quick about the business or we shall be called to din-
ner in the midst.”
Lady Haldon was f-orty, a widow, and still in half-
mourning for her departed earl; nevertheless, she
had not lost all interest in the future. She took her
turn ﬁrst, laughingly inviting the veiled woman to
the pretty stateroom, where her maid had already
been busily unpacking; but she appeared again before
she was expected, pouting a little.
“ The creature is not so very wonderful, after all,”
she announced. “ She did tell me one or two rather
queer things, but I warn you, Betty, you’ll be disap-
pointed.”
“We shall see,” said the girl, and pushed the
portiere away from the open door of her cabin.
“ May it be shut? ” asked the woman. “ I saved
all the time I could for you,” murmured the hidden
lips. “What does it matter for an old woman like
Madame? Now you shall know, mademoiselle, the


I12 A SECRET OF THE SEA
use I make of the topaz which fell on the ﬂoor. It
is a magic stone. I lay it in my hand, so, and I see
strange visions, such as in the West they say that
they see in a crystal.”
The woman had not returned the topaz to the
chamois-skin roll, which she had left in the saloon.
Now she took it from the bosom of her dress, and
holding it in the palm of her hand, where it looked
like a bubble of liquid gold, she stared ﬁxedly into
the globe of light.
“I see a great expanse of water,” she said, in a
low, crooning voice. “ It is night. There is moon-
light, bright, white moonlight. There are two
yachts, one like this; yes, it is this yacht; I see the
name. The other has some strange spell upon her.
Something terrible has happened on board; I can-
not quite tell what. This yacht of yours meets her
on the sea.”
Betty grew excited. Of course, the woman might
have heard of the derelict which the Naiad had taken
in tow. Lady Haldon said the story was being dis-
cussed in Tangier that day; still the fortune-teller
was not the sort of person one would expect to hear
such things, and it was rather queer that she should
have said it was moonlight when the two yachts met.
“ What was the name of the other yacht?” the
girl asked. “ Can you see that in the topaz?”
“ X-e-n-i-a,” the woman spelled out letter by let-
ter in French. “ Some one goes on board her from


THE TOPAZ 113
your yacht; from a boat that is sent out. Is it one
——no, two — two men. Are there no more? Ah,
afterward; afterward others go on.” She spoke
slowly, as if introspectively, but from time to time
her eyes were quickly lifted to Betty’s expressive
face, drinking in each change with feverish haste.
“ I will follow these men — the two men who go
ﬁrst,” she went on. “ I can see them in the topaz.
One is— is it your father? Yes, it is he; and an-
other.” She paused, but Betty was impatient now.
“Oh, go on; what of him? Can you see the
other’s face? ” she pleaded like a child.
The woman’s eyes ﬂashed. She did not raise
them from the topaz to study Betty’s expression now.
“It is some one you care for—care for very
much.” [Betty sighed] “He is not here, and
that makes you unhappy.”
“ Now it really is getting to be very strange,”
poor little Betty said to herself. “ How could she
know that I cared, and that he wasn’t here now—
and that I was unhappy?”
The veiled woman threw a critical glance at the
girl, taking in her ﬂower-like fragility, her lily fair-
ness.
“1 see the man’s face,’ she exclaimed. “He is
young and dark. Yes, dark and handsome. He is
tall, a great contrast to you. He loves you dearly.”
[Betty sighed again and bit her lip.] “ The reason
that you are unhappy is because—the man is
7


116 A SECRET OF THE SEA
of all the principal men here know and trust me.
I do a great deal of business for them, such as sell-
ing jewellery, making cosmetics, and telling fortunes.
The diamond tiara which you saw to-night I should
probably get a better price for in Gibraltar, where
there are a number of English ladies at all times of
the year. Here, in Tangier, the season is now over;
most of the rich foreigners have gone from the ho-
tels. But I cannot make the journey to Gibraltar
without money. If you can give me enough for my
fare there and back I will not ask for more, because
it will be good for me to be in Gibraltar. Once
there I will go to see the gentleman on board the
lost yacht ”
“ Perhaps you would not be allowed on board,”
Betty broke in, doubtfully.
“Then I could write to him. That is, I could
write if I had an excuse. He would laugh and send
me about my business if I pleaded that I could help
him in his work by looking in my topaz. Men do
laugh at such things, until they are convinced against
their wills. And I could convince him, but not at
ﬁrst. I must have some other reason for applying
to him. If you could write a letter, mademoi-
selle ”
“ Very well, I will write a letter, and you shall take
it,” the girl answered, blushing, and relieved that the
woman should have been the ﬁrst to make the sug-
gestion. “I have not much money of my own, and


THE BELL-DANCER 1 1 7
I can’t ask for such a purpose. But I have a ﬁve-
pound note ”
“ It will be enough, mademoiselle,” said the
woman; “ and the letter, will you write it now? ”
Betty sat down at the pretty little white writing
desk which was built into the wall of her cabin.
There was no time for a long letter. At any mo-
ment she might be called to dinner, and the woman
would have to leave the Naiad. But a few words to
Peter would answer as well as volumes—if only
they were the right words.

“I love you better than ever,” she said, “ and
nothing will make me stop loving you. Lord Um-
berleigh is a bore. Fair men seem so insipid—
after you. This may be the last letter I shall have
a chance to write, but I shall always be thinking
about you, Peter. A woman who is going to Gibral-
tar will take this. I think I may trust her. Please
be kind to the poor thing for my sake, as she is going
such a long way for me. And if she asks to tell your
fortune, let her do it. She is quite wonderful, and
she told me all about you.
“Yours always (I really mean that),
“ BETTY.”
“Come along, girlie,” cried Manners’s voice at
the door. “We’ve been called to dinner.”
“ Yes, yes, we’re just ﬁnishing,” called Betty, nerv-


II8 A SECRET OF THE SEA
ously. “ I’ll be there in a minute.” She folded the
paper, snatched an envelope, addressed it to Peter
Knight, Esq., Yacht Xenia, Harbour of Gibraltar,
thrust the letter inside and sealed it. “ Now, how
shall I ever knew that this has been delivered and
that you have told my friend all the things you have
promised? ”
“ The gentleman will send you word in a letter.”
returned the woman, with conﬁdence.
“ No, he can’t do that. But, here, take this hand-
kerchief of mine. See, it has my name, ‘ Betty,’ em-
broidered in the corner. Post that to me in an en-
velope from Gibraltar. Better send it to Lisbon.
I’ll address it to myself; that’s best. Here, take it
quickly; there must be nothing but the handkerchief
—no letter. I shall know by the Gibraltar post-
mark that it is all right.”
A moment later the veiled woman was meekly
leaving the stateroom, her head demurely bowed,
her dark eyes on the ground. And it was only when
she had left the yacht in the waiting boat, and Betty
was playing hostess at the dinner table that the girl
had time to tell herself that she had been very fool-
ish. She had really no guarantee that the woman
would go to Gibraltar and take the letter to Peter
Knight. Perhaps she would throw it away, and send
the handkerchief to some one she might know at
Gibraltar to post there. Or, perhaps she would put
a stamp on the letter, and let it go through the post-


THE BELL-DANCER I 19
oﬁice, without keeping her promise about helping
Peter by means of her topaz-gazing powers. Even
that would be better than nothing, for the envelope
was fully addressed, and would certainly reach Peter
if it were posted. But the woman might be a wicked
creature; she might open it, and get some one, who
understood English, to read it; then, ﬁnding that it
was a love letter, she might either try to blackmail
Betty herself, by threatening to show it to her father,
unless she were paid for secrecy; or she might go
straight to the latter and offer to sell him valuable
information concerning his daughter.
With these alarming thoughts in her mind, it was
all that Betty could do to laugh and talk, and hide
her anxiety. But her cheeks burned with a rose-
flush of excitement, and her dilated eyes were large,
and dark as violets. Umberleigh was even more in
love than he had been when he had seen her last in
England, and thought it rather hard lines that Man-
ners had coolly advised him, if he wanted the girl,
not to “ rush things.”
Next morning, there was an expedition into Tan-
gier for sight-seeing and shopping. Lady Haldon
had been spending most of the winter at the largest
hotel in the picturesque Eastern town, and her
brother had come out to join her several weeks ago,
so that there were no novelties left for them; but
Umberleigh promised himself pleasure in watching
Betty’s delight. As the yacht’s boat came dancing


120 A SECRET OF THE SEA
over the bright green water toward the quay, an-
other boat, somewhat larger, shot out from the jetty.
Several English people were on board, and among
them sat a white-draped, veiled ﬁgure, at sight of
which Betty Manners gave a little stifled cry.
“ What is it, Betty? ” asked her father. “Any
one we know in the boat? ”
“ No-o.” The girl hesitated. “It was only—
I thought I recognized the Moorish woman who
came on board the Naiad with Lady Haldon and
Lord Umberleigh last night.”
“ Not very likely,” said Umberleigh. “ She
wouldn’t be going to Gib.”
“ Are the people in that boat going there? ” Betty
inquired, hiding eagerness.
“Yes; they’re being taken out to the Sultana,
a little trading boat that plies back and forth twice
a week. Perhaps you noticed her anchored not far
from the Naiad this morning.”
Betty managed to reply that she had not, though
she was so preoccupied that she could not have told
afterward whether she had said “yes ” or “no.”
So the woman was actually going to Gibraltar, and
evidently meant to keep her word! Betty would
have given almost anything to know what would
really pass between the fortune-teller and Peter
Knight; what he would think of the letter, whether
he would countenance the topaz-gazing, and whether
anything interesting would be prophesied to him.


THE BELL-DANCER 12 I
The veiled woman had said that she could put him
in the path of fortune; and the way that she had de-
scribed Peter Knight, and told the exact circum-
stances which detained him in Gibraltar, did seem
wonderful. Betty was very young, very childlike in
some respects, even for her eighteen years, and she
did not realize how easy it is to believe what one
ardently desires to believe. She would have in-
sisted in repeating what had happened last night
between herself and the fortune-teller, that she had
said nothing to put the woman on the right track;
whereas not a statement had been made which might
not have been suggested by a change of expression
on Betty’s face, a sigh, a quick-drawn breath, a look
of anxiety, an inadvertent word, or a broken sen-
tence.
They landed, and walked up through the narrow
streets to the Sok, or market place, Betty conducted
by Umberleigh, while Manners and Lady Haldon
followed leisurely on behind. It was market day,
and the great square was crowded with dark-faced
men, selling fruit and vegetables, heaped in bright-
coloured piles on the low stands before which they
squatted, or displaying strange garments for sale;
beads, red and yellow; worsted in huge hanks; for-
midable looking knives; glass bracelets; ﬁat, sugared
cakes, and a thousand and one things over which
veiled women, tiny brown children, and tall, thin-
legged men, cloaked with sacking, chattered and bar-


122 A SECRET OF THE SEA
gained. Men, with skin water bottles on their
backs, threaded their way among the moving throngs;
groups of gaily dressed Moors stopped to gaze
gravely at snake-charmers and conjurers, and in the
centre of the market place a crowd was collected
round some one or something apparently of special
interest.
Betty and Umberleigh went toward the group,
the girl unaware that her father and Lady Haldon
had now been left far behind, the young man agree-
ably conscious of the fact.
“ Why, what an extraordinary looking creature! ”
Betty exclaimed, when they had come near enough
to see what was going on inside the circle.
“ Oh, it’s only old Sidi Mahrez, the mad bell-
dancer,” exclaimed Umberleigh. “ He’s a great
character in Tangier.”
Until the young man spoke, the air had been sibi-
lant with an unceasing sound of little jingling bells,
whose delicate notes rang out shrilly above the roar
and hum of the market place. Within the circle an
old man—black as a berry and half naked, with
cow’s horns on his head, his emaciated body hung
from throat to thighs with strings of bells—had
been jumping up and down, performing strange an-
tics with his thin legs and arms, his great eyes roll-
ing, his thick lips chanting a barbaric air in time with
the jingling of his hundred bells. But at the sound
of Umberleigh’s voice he stopped as suddenly as if


THE BELL-DANCER I 23
he had been shot, the bells still vibrating. His eyes,
which had been rolled up under his wrinkled lids, so
that only the whites showed, came down and ﬁxed
themselves on the Englishman, then turned to the
lovely girl in white. With an imperative gesture he
motioned the crowd aside, and the Orientals scat-
tered before him, as if struck with awe, collecting
again at a little distance to see what would happen
next.
“ They’re afraid of the old fellow,” said Umber-
leigh; “they think he’s a wizard, and that he can
‘conjure ’ their children if he chooses. But he’s a
harmless old fool, really, only rather sharp in some
ways. I’ve given him money for his queer dance
once or twice, and of course he was quick to recog-
nize my voice. Are you afraid of him, or would
you care to stop and see him go through his paces? ”
Betty laughed at the idea of being afraid, and said
that she would like to see the dance. Accordingly
it began, and consisted of extraordinary writhings
of the wiry black body, accompanied by strange
croonings, and the tintinnabulation of many bells.
At the end the old man, apparently breathless, darted
forward and caught Betty’s white serge dress.
“Here, here, none of that!” exclaimed Umber-
leigh, sharply, conﬁdent that his tone, if not his
words, would be understood. “ I’ve got something
for you. Let the young lady alone.”
But already Betty, greatly interested, and not in


124 A SECRET OF THE SEA
the least frightened, had opened her purse. She
took out some silver, which she had got from a
money changer in the bazaars, and held it for the
old dancer to take. He grasped the coin, but left
something in its place in Betty’s hand.


CHAPTER XIII
A NEW MYSTERY
ETER KNIGHT stood with the ivory knob of
the stateroom door in his hand, unable to be-
lieve his own cars. For as long as it might take a
man to count ten, perhaps, he was spellbound with
surprise; then he ﬂung the door wide open and
walked into the cabin.
“Who’s there?” he asked, shortly, thinking it
possible that one of the watchers sent on board by
the captain of the port might have been tempted to
do a little exploring on his own account.
No answer came. The sly rustling sound had
ceased. The unlighted cabin was silent with a si-
lence that seemed deathlike, after that mysterious,
unexpected stirring, but Peter noticed, or fancied he
noticed, that the delicate fragrance which had hung
about the cabin — as about all the vanished woman’s
belongings — was stronger than before. His blood
began to run more quickly as he found his way to the
electric-light switch and turned it on. Simultane-
ously each full-blown rose in the wreath round the
mirror, and the garland hanging from the white
swan’s beak over the bed, blazed with a pink dia-
. 125


126 A SECRET OF THE SEA
mond at its heart; the room was suffused with the
soft, rosy radiance intended to enhance a woman’s
beauty.
Peter Knight’s eyes travelled rapidly round the
cabin. It was empty, and looked, at a superﬁcial
glance, exactly as it had looked when he had visited
it last. There were no places of concealment except
the wardrobe and a bathroom adjoining. Peter
walked straight to the latter, switched on the light,
saw that no one was there, and returned to search
the wardrobe. With his hand on the door, which
slid into a groove, he had suddenly an impression
that some evil living presence lurked behind the thin
wooden barrier, waiting to spring at him when the
barrier should be removed. A chill crept through
his veins and though he had proved himself a brave
man in circumstances which try men’s souls, he knew
now that he was afraid. Angry and ashamed of his
hesitation, he gave the door a sharp push which sent
it gliding along its groove to the very end.
It moved jerkily at the last, with a slight metallic
sound, and it seemed to Knight that there was an-
other sound, too, like a rustling of silk. But there
was nothing in the wardrobe except the rows of
dainty dresses, each hanging on a separate hook, the
skirts and bodices of the same costumes placed to-
gether. Still, the impression of horror remained;
some malicious and hideous thing, threatening evil.
There was surely no sound now, and yet Peter imag-


A NEW MYSTERY 127
ined the coming and going of a breath. If there
were ghosts, he said to himself, it was imaginable
that they might make their invisible presence known
in some such eerie and indeﬁnable way as this. But,
then, there were no such beings as ghosts, in this
world at least, and he was a fool to be unnerved for
nothing. He thrust his arm deep into the ward-
robe, pushing the delicate dresses to right and left,
determined to make sure that no one was hiding in
the narrow space behind them. Nothing was there;
and yet Peter Knight drew his arm back suddenly
with an exclamation of astonishment. Something
cold had touched the back of his hand, and he had
received a distinct shock.
For a moment he stood still, staring into the ward-
robe in absolute bewilderment.
“By Jove, I must be off my head! ” he said to
himself slowly, and aloud, for the comfort of his
own voice. “ I must have fancied that. It couldn’t
have happened. Who would have thought I could
be such a fool? ”
To punish himself, he began passing both hands
back and forth among the perfumed dresses in the
wardrobe, touching each one, and the wall behind.
The shock did not come again, and he felt that he
ought to be sure it had not really come before. But
he could not be sure. On the contrary, he was cer-
tain that he had felt it, could even feel it still, tin-
gling up his right arm as far as the elbow; and still


A NEW MYSTERY r29
heard, certainly; but now he argued that he might
have miscalculated the direction from which the
sound came. He had been promised that his investi-
gations on board the Xenia would not be interfered
with; nevertheless, it might be considered part of the
watchers’ duty to supervise his actions from a dis-
tance, and one of the two men appointed by the cap-
tain of the port might have been following him when
he entered the stateroom. This must have been so,
he told himself now, for no wind was blowing, to
rustle papers or curtains, and there were only three
persons on the yacht -— himself and those two others.
Sounds such as he had heard could not make them-
selves, and unless one were to take refuge in the
supernatural, one must account in the only rational
way for what had happened. He would presently
question the two men, and the seeming mystery
would doubtless be readily solved — all but the elec-
tric shock received in the wardrobe; and that, he
feared, must be set down to an oversensitive imagina-
tion.
So thinking, Peter attempted to shut the ward-
robe door, but it stuck in the groove, leaving an open
space of ten or twelve inches; and seeing it thus, it
occurred to him that this door had not been closed
when he came into the stateroom ten minutes 'ago.
Earlier in the day it had been tight shut, he remem-
bered, for he had glanced into the cabin in making
a tour of the yacht, immediately after coming on


130 A SECRET OF THE SEA
board and settling his luggage in one of the unused
staterooms. To-night, after hearing the noise, and
turning on the light, his mind had been intent on
other things, and he had not said to himself, “This
door is not as I saw it last ”; but he was almost sure
that, when he ﬁrst touched it, there had been exactly
the same open space which existed now. There
would not be room enough for a man to squeeze his
body into the wardrobe without pushing the door
several inches farther back in its groove; but a slen-
der woman might step through without moving the
door. Peter’s mind touched on this possibility, then
glided off again, for he had proved beyond shadow
of doubt that no one was concealed behind the
dresses in the wardrobe. He jerked the door with
some violence, overcame its tendency to stick, and
closed it with a snap, only remembering as he did so,
what had originally brought him to the stateroom.
He had come with the idea of ﬁnding some clue to
the identity of its missing inmate by means of the
gowns hanging in the wardrobe. Stupid to have let
the thing be driven from his mind by funk— for
there was no use disguising it, he had been frightened
for a moment or two! He ﬂung open the door
again, and took from its hook the bodice of a white
satin dress. The wearer had evidently been slender
and small; the inside belt could scarcely measure
twenty inches, and printed upon it in small gold let-


A NEW MYSTERY I3I
ters were the words: “Lucette et Cie., 75, Via
Sicilia, Napoli.”
This was satisfactory, and encouraged, Knight
examined the belts in several other bodices. All
showed the same name, and every frock looked so
new and unsoiled that the young man fancied they
must have been made quite recently. He decided
to keep two or three of these bodices, send or take
them to the house of Lucette et Cie. in Naples, and
learn the name of the lady for whom they had been
designed. So intent was he upon this new idea, that
he forgot to close the wardrobe door at last, and was
leaving the stateroom with his spoils hanging over
his arm, when he noticed in passing the dressing
table the heavy perfume which had struck him on
entering the room. It certainly was stronger than
it had been, and strongest of all near the table. He
stopped and looked more carefully than before at
the mass of glittering things which sparkled under
the rosy light. His ﬁrst glance on coming into the
cabin had given him the impression that all was as it
had been, but now he saw that it was not so. A gold
scent bottle had been upset, and the screw top, with
its huge turquoise almost as big as a robin’s egg,
lay beside it, in a little patch of fragrant moisture.
But this was not the only change. In the inventory
of valuables taken by the captain of the port, “six
rings, diamond, emerald, ruby, pearl, sapphire, opal,


132 A SECRET OF THE SEA
in small gold dish on lady’s dressing-table,” were
among the items high on the list. Peter remem-
bered the entry, to which he had certiﬁed, and he re-
membered the rings. Now, three were missing.
Rapidly he ran his eye over the other jewels, and
so far as he could remember, everything else was
there. He went into the next stateroom, once occu-
pied by the owner of the yacht, and found all as it
should be. But Peter was greatly perplexed, and
having left in the cabin he had selected for himself,
the little heap of silks and satins and chiffons taken
from the wardrobe, he went up on deck.
His two ofﬁcial companions were standing near
the bow, talking together, and he joined them.
“ Which one of you was down below lately? ” he
asked.
Both men looked at him in apparent surprise.
“Neither of us have been below lately, sir,” re-
turned the elder of the two. “We’ve been where
we are now for the last half hour or more.”
“ You are sure of that?” inquired Peter.
“ Sure, sir.”
“ No one could have sneaked on board, I suppose,
without your knowledge? ”
“Not possible, sir. May we ask why? ”
Knight determined to say nothing to the men
about the rings, but to tell the captain of the port in
the morning what had happened.
“ Oh, I thought I heard some one moving about in


A NEW MYSTERY 133
the saloon or one of the staterooms a few minutes
ago, that’s all,” he said, aloud.
The twomen looked at each other, exchanging a
peculiar glance.


CHAPTER XIV
A FIGURE IN A CLOAK
HERE was little sleep for Peter that night,
partly, perhaps, because it was his ﬁrst on
board the Xenia (not counting the moonlit hours
of that strange visit of exploration), and partly be-
cause he had many things of which to think. He
decided to make a parcel of the spoil ﬁlched from
the wardrobe, and send the bodices to-morrow to
Lucette with a carefully worded letter of inquiry.
He would have liked to take them himself, but it
would be impossible to leave the yacht at present,
and he was not patient of delay. If the French
dressmaker in Naples, who did business as Lucette
et Cie., was able to recall the name of the customer
who had ordered these costumes from her, she would
also be able to state the fact in black and white ——-
and answer various questions on paper as well as by
word of mouth.
Finding himself unable to sleep for thinking of
things which he had left undone, and other things
yet to do, he could no longer bear to lie tossing in
his berth. It had occurred to him that, if evening
clothes should be hanging in the wardrobe of the
134


A FIGURE IN A CLOAK I35
missing owner of the Xenia, it would help to prove
his theory that the last meal eaten on board had not
been dinner, but luncheon. Besides, he had not yet
looked at the man’s clothing to ﬁnd the tailor’s name.
The stateroom was next but one to the cabin he
now occupied. He turned on the light there, found
the evening things, as he had hoped to do, but was
surprised and disappointed at the absence of the
tailor’s name in every coat which he examined. In-
side the collar of each, in place of the usual loop
with the name of the maker, a small chain had been
inserted, and there was no clue to the maker of the
neatly folded and well-laundered shirts in the
drawers of a tall chiffonier.
When there was nothing more which the wardrobe
of the vanished owner could tell him, Peter switched
off the electricity and stepped out of the stateroom to
go back to his own. It was dark, and as he had
neglected to turn on the light in his cabin before
starting out, he groped in dead blackness, feeling his
way along the wall. He had just reached his own
door, when, quick as the rustle of some little night-
creature scuttling through the grass, came the sly,
silky sound he had heard a few hours ago. In-
stantly he put out his hand, and his groping ﬁngers
touched a soft, slippery thing which darted away
from under them almost before he was sure of its
reality. Peter followed in the direction it seemed to
have taken until suddenly he was brought up against


136 A SECRET OF THE SEA
a table. Then ‘he realized that it was useless to
continue a chase in the dark. He came upon a door,
opened it, and switching on the light, discovered that
he had stumbled into his own stateroom. By means
of this illumination he found the electric switch in
the saloon, and soon had a brilliant light; but the
rustling Mystery was still invisible, and though, angry
and bewildered, he left no cranny unexplored, be dis-
covered nothing which could account for his experi-
ence. One of the men was snoring in the ﬁrst oﬂi-
cer’s cabin, the other was on the bridge. There
Knight saw him, and, satisﬁed that neither he nor
his companion had been concerned in the mysterious
aﬂair, returned to his own stateroom.
Now, less than ever, did he expect to sleep; but
even as he turned in his mind the eternal questions,
consciousness slipped away, and he did not wake until
the sun looked in on him through the open port-hole.
After a salt bath, he felt ready to attack a hundred
hitherto bafﬂing problems, and went up on deck with
the intention of asking one of the men to row him
ashore for breakfast, and a chat with the captain of
the port.
Again he found them together, talking with the
same low-voiced earnestness which he had noticed
on breaking in upon their conversation last night.
They started slightly as he approached, almost
guiltily, and his smouldering suspicion of the pair
burst once more into ﬂame.


A FIGURE IN A CLOAK 137
“ Is anything the matter?” he inquired, abruptly.
“ \Nell, sir,” said he who had acted as spokesman
last night, “ there’s just this the matter. My mate
and I was thinking of asking to have some other
chaps put on this billet. We’ve had about enough
of it.”
“ What, after one night?” exclaimed Peter. “ I
should think that you’d ﬁnd some trouble in getting
the captain of the port to see things your way.”
“ It isn’t the job we mind, sir,” explained the man;
“ we’re both old sailors, and we’ve been accustomed
to obeying orders, whatever came along. We
thought ourselves in luck to have got the billet, which
plenty of other fellows would have snapped at, but
now any of ’em can have it, and welcome. I know
I and my mate here would give a year’s pay sooner
than stop another night on board this derelict.”
“ Why? ” asked Knight, shortly.
“ Because there’s more on her than us three, sir.”
“ What do you mean? You told me when I ques-
tioned you last night that it was impossible for any-
body to come on board without your knowledge.”
“ And_I say so again, sir.”
“ Then what are you driving at? Do you hint
that there’s somebody concealed on board—with
an eye to the gold plate or the jewels? ”
“ Nothing living, sir; there’s no chance of it. Me
and my mate have made sure of that in the last two
hours, though we was certain enough before, that it


138 A SECRET OF THE SEA
couldn’t be so. If there was a thief to tackle, that
would be child’s play, and we’d ask nothing better
than to be in it; but —-”
“ But what? Speak out, can’t you? ”
“ It’s the dead, sir. This yacht is haunted.”
“ Pshaw! You surely don’t assert that seriously
as a reason for being excused from the duty to which
you two men have been appointed?”
“ We do, indeed, sir. We can’t do less after what
took place last night.”
“ What did take place? Whatever it was, it can’t
have troubled you much; for I passed by your bunk
in the night and heard you snoring about three
o’clock. Your mate was on the bridge at the time.
I came up on deck and saw him in the moonlight.”
“Oh, sir, then perhaps you didn’t rest too well
yourself? ”
“ I didn’t sleep till after three.”
“ And we haven’t had a wink since, sir.”
“ Tell me straight out what was the trouble.”
“ Why, sir, I was waked up by a breathing in the
dark.”
“Your own, I should say. It was pretty audible
about that time.”
“ No, it wasn’t my own, sir. I think I must have
felt it before ever my ears got to work. It was
close to my face. My eyes popped open in the dark,
and then I began to hear the breath, coming and go-
ing. ‘ Brown, is that you?’ I asks. Nobody an-


A FIGURE IN A CLOAK I39
swered, and I jumps up like a shot, feelin’ rather
queer, for early last evening something had happened
to upset us a bit. There wasn’t another sound; but
I began pottering about to ﬁnd the electric switch, so
stupid with sleep still, I couldn’t think where it was.
Well, I got my hand on it at last, and there was no-
body in the cabin, but the door was wide open. I
shut it, and slipped on some clothes as quick as I
could to go on deck; but I wasn’t ready when I heard
Brown’s voice at the door. He’d been havin’ a lit-
tle experience of his own.”
At this point in his narrative the man paused, and
looked at his mate, who ﬂushed uneasily, and did not
take up the cue which had been given to him, until
Knight put in a suggestive: “ Well?”
“Well, sir,” he echoed, “it was only that I was
walkin’ up and down on the bridge, accordin’ to the
rule that one of us is always to be awake and on the
watch for what might happen, when I heard a queer
sound, as if a woman or child was cryin’ under their
breath. The night wasn’t just clear, as you know,
sir—since you say you was up and about—and
there was a thin cloud over the moon, like a veil
drawn across a girl’s face. But I looked down on
deck, and as true as I’m alive, I saw a woman trailin’
along a hooded cloak that dragged behind her as
she walked. She was a little thing, all bent over,
with the hood over her head, and her face down be-
tween her hands. This way and that she was wan-


I40 A SECRET OF THE SEA
derin’, like a blind man, sobbin’ and moanin’ and
swayin’. She was close to the rail, and goin' closer
every step. Just for a minute I forgot that there
was no live woman on board, and I was so sure she
meant to throw herself into the sea, that before I
knew what I was doing, I sang out. With that, sir,
she turned. I saw her lift her head, as if she was
looking straight at me, and the moon was nearly
clear, so I could have seen her face, if she’d had
one. But I swear to you there wasn’t a face.
There was just a gleam of eyes, but no face at all.
And as I stood there, all of a cold sweat, starin’, the
ﬁgure vanished—yes, sir, vanished right into thin
air.”
“Nonsense,” said Knight, “ you know it couldn’t
have done that, unless you’d dreamed the whole
thing, which is the most probable explanation.”
“I never heard of a chap dreamin’ on his feet,
sir,” replied Brown, grinning shamefacedly. “ And,
anyhow, I was wide enough awake to go down and
look all round the deck. There wasn’t a thing to
be seen, or a sound to be heard. I felt very queer;
and that was when I paid a visit to my mate Edwards
in his bunk. As for the cryin’, sir, we both heard it
together, not an hour before you asked us last night
if we’d been below, or if any one could have come
aboard. It was a low sobbin’ and moanin’, like a
woman or a kid, and it seemed to come from close
by, almost as if ’twas beneath our feet. We thought


A FIGURE IN A CLOAK 141
there must be a boat on the port side, but we looked
—there and everywhere else. There was nothing
near us at all. What with that, and what came
afterward, we’ve made up our minds that there’s a
curse on this yacht. There ain’t a doubt, sir, but
some dreadful crime was done on board of her the
other night, though what it was probably no man
will ever know; and our idea is that this haunting
thing is the spirit of one of the victims that can’t
rest in Davy Jones’s locker until the truth about her
death is brought to light. Every night she’ll walk
until the murderer is discovered, if he’s above
ground, or until this derelict is burnt down to the
sea, which I can’t help thinking, sir, would be the
best thing for everyone concerned. There’s a curse
on her, and will be on every man that stops aboard
of her.”
“ I intend to risk that curse,” said Peter.
“ Did you see or hear nothing in the night, sir?”
Brown asked, hesitatingly.
“Well, I did hear something, or imagined it,”
Knight answered. “ But now, by morning light, I’m
inclined to think it must have been imagination.
Anyhow, I’ve no faith in the ghost theory.”
“ We’re no cowards, neither of us; our records tell
that; and if we weren’t to be trusted the captain
wouldn’t have set us on this job, with all the gold
and diamonds lyin’ about,” remarked Brown; “ but
we can’t stand any more of last night’s business.


142 A SECRET OF THE SEA
I’m blowed, sir, if I don’t believe I should go ravin’
mad if it was to come over again; that little crouchin’,
sobbin’ woman, with eyes that gleamed, and no face
to put them in. It’s beyond me.”
“ Well, you must settle it with the captain,” said
Peter. “ I want to land now, and you’ll have a
chance to tell him your story.”
The Xenia lay close to the new quay, and ten min-
utes later Knight was on shore. As he ran up the
stone steps he caught sight of a ﬁgure which, though
ordinary enough at Algiers or Tangier, was remark-
able at Gibraltar. It was a Moorish woman, draped
and veiled in white.


144 A SECRET OF THE SEA
such a bearer, he could not guess. But nothing was
of importance save that he actually held in his hand
aletter from the One Girl in the world. With quick-
ening pulses, he tore open the envelope, and then —
his ﬁrst impression was one of disappointment, for
the pretty characteristic writing scarcely covered the
ﬁrst page; and, besides, the note did not begin with
any aﬂectionate epithet, coupled with his name.
But, as he read on, the brevity of the letter was
atoned for. She loved him better than ever, and
Lord Umberleigh was a bore.
Peter made up for the lack of epithets in Betty’s
letter by the quantity he mentally bestowed upon
her.
“Dear, darling, precious little sweetheart angel,
to write to me like this! ” he apostrophized his for-
bidden love. “And to send some one all the way
from Tangier to Gib with balm of Gilead for my
heartache. Bless her a thousand, thousand times! ”
In his rapture he could almost have kissed the
slim brown hand which had given him the letter, and
with it so much happiness. Of course, he could not
do that, but luckily he could lay in the palm some-
thing far more acceptable than such a token of grati-
tude.
He adored his little child-sweetheart for what
she said in her letter about the fortune telling. It
was delicious to think it had pleased her to hear that
a man resembling Peter Knight had a place in her


THE BRINGER OF A LETTER 145
future. As for him, he thought fortune tellers and
their trade great nonsense, but Betty bade him listen
to what this veiled prophetess had to say, and it
would give him inﬁnite pleasure to obey. There
was, however, something else to do ﬁrst.
“ Are you going back to Tangier?” he said
eagerly, speaking in French, as the woman had.
“ Did I understand you to say you could take back
an answer?”
“ Yes, monsieur, I can take an answer,” returned
the fortune teller. “ I am returning as soon as pos-
sible, and if I am too late to give a letter to the
beautiful young lady, I am to send it on, under cover
of some purchases she made in Tangier, to Lisbon.
She gave me her address there for that purpose.
And, monsieur, that letter I have given you was
written in great haste. The young lady feared in-
terruption, and dared not say all she wished. But
when it was ﬁnished, and the envelope fastened and
addressed, there was still a moment or two of time
left for our private conversation. The beautiful
young lady trusted me with some extra directions,
which I was to deliver to you by word of mouth, and
without fail, as—she said—they were the most
important of all.”
“ Well— and what were they?” demanded
Knight, when the woman paused.
“ But, monsieur, it would not be well to tell you
here. There was something of secret about this


146 A SECRET OF THE SEA
message. Who knows what ears may be listening?
Can you not talk to me in a more private place? On
board the yacht from which you have just come —
is it not? ”
Peter glanced at the white-veiled ﬁgure with his
ﬁrst movement of suspicion.
“It isn’t necessary to go there, I think. There
will be some convenient place in the town,” he said.
“ Yet it was the desire of the young lady that I
should be taken on board the yacht where you are
living, monsieur. She wished me to bring or send
her, with the letter which she expected you would
write, some object which should be intimately yours
— a thing which she could keep in remembrance of
you until you should meet again. Perhaps some lit-
tle article of jewellery, which Monsieur could spare
—- a tiny thing of no intrinsic value. Where could
Monsieur ﬁnd such an object if not on the yacht
which is for the moment his home? Those were,
as nearly as I can remember, the very words of the
beautiful young lady. And she also commanded
that I should tell Monsieur’s fortune.”
Peter’s face grew graver as he listened. Either
he had imagined it, or the woman’s eyes had darted
a swift, inquiring glance at his hands before she sug-
gested an article of jewellery as a token to be sent
back to Betty. It was as if, before she mentioned
it, she wished to make sure that he wore no ring,
which he might choose to give, and thus avoid a


THE BRINGER OF A LETTER I47
visit to the yacht. Very possibly, he told himself,
he had let himself drift too far into the habit of sus-
picion during the past days of mystery; very possibly
be wronged the woman. But the fact remained that
he wore no ring, and that no small thing which could
answer the purpose of a souvenir was visible about
him. At least, it would have been easy for a glance
to ascertain this.
He took a moment or two for reflection, and at
the end of that time decided that it would not do to
grant the fortune teller’s request, even if it were
really made by Betty’s desire. He could not take
this woman or any one else on board the Xenia with-
out obtaining the consent of the captain of the port.
To do so would be to break his given word. And
after what had happened last night, he would be
placing both himself and the captain of the port in a
most unpleasant position by asking permission to in-
troduce a stranger, male or female, on the derelict.
Three extremely valuable rings had disappeared dur-
ing the night; and he must report the fact this morn-
ing, without having any explanation or even sugges-
tion to oerr.
Suspicion must lie between him, the two watchers
whom the captain of the port had selected, and — a
ghost. If he asked to have this woman come on
board, even for a few minutes, it would not be
strange if a queer thought came into the oﬁicial’s
mind, even if it did not amount to active suspicion;


148 A SECRET OF THE SEA
and he did not intend to put the thought there.
After his few seconds of consideration, he told Bet-
ty’s strange messenger that he could not take her on
the Xenia. He would return there for a souvenir,
would write the answer which she was to carry away,
and afterward they could have a conversation in
some hotel up in the town. But before he could
attend to any of these matters, he would be obliged
to ﬁnish the errand for which he had left the Xenia,
and must ask the woman to wait, perhaps half an
hour.
As Peter announced this, he looked straight into
the dark eyes, sparkling between the folds of semi-
transparent white. It is diﬂicult to read the expres-
sion of a woman’s face in her eyes alone; but once
they fell, as if to hide some feeling best concealed.
Peter believed that his decision had caused deep dis-
appointment, and he wondered why.
At all events the fortune teller hid her vexation,
if she felt it, very creditably. She said that no
doubt, Monsieur knew best; and as for waiting, she
had plenty of time. There was no boat by which
she could return immediately to Tangier, and she
was at his disposal not only for half an hour, but as
many hours as Monsieur found necessary. So he
left her and hastened away to call upon the captain
of the port, as he had originally intended. But he
was no longer weary and despondent. Betty Man-
ners’s letter lay over his heart, and the thought of


THE BRINGER OF A LETTER r49
her words was like a draught of champagne when a
man’s strength is spent.
The captain of the port heard his tale with as-
tonishment. Of course, the ghost could exist only
in imagination, and as the yacht had been so thor-
oughly overhauled it was diﬂicult to believe that a
thief or trickster could be concealed on board; still,
it would be well to have another look round, to make
assurance doubly sure. He would have staked a
good deal on the integrity of the men he had chosen,
but it was possible, no doubt, that one or both had
yielded to the strong temptation offered by so many
valuables. They should be removed from their
charge, when they made their request, and others
should be put in their place. But if Mr. Knight had
come to a stage of his investigations when the gold
plate, jewellery, and valuable bric-a-brac could be re-
moved, packed up, and put in a safe in the ofﬁce
until called for, it would be a relief to all parties.
Meanwhile, if no one were found on board the Xenia
save the two men in charge, they would be cautiously
examined, though not, for the present, accused of
dishonesty; and naturally every effort would be made
to recover the lost rings.
When Peter was free to give his attention once
more to his own affairs, he went back to the quay,
meaning to row out to the Xenia and write his letter,
enclosing a rather valuable little coin which he had
picked up in Algiers when shopping with Betty and


150 A SECRET OF THE SEA
her father. Betty would remember it, and he would
have it pierced and hung on a bangle, if he could ﬁnd
one in the town worthy of her acceptance. But as
he came near the fortune teller’s waiting place she
hurried to him.
“ Might I beg,” she began, meekly, in her pe-
culiar French, “ that Monsieur would not write his
answer to the lady until he and I have had a con-
versation? There are several questions which I
have been instructed to ask, and Monsieur would
thus have the opportunity of replying to them.”
Peter readily agreed to this request, though he
had looked forward to taking a few quiet moments in
his stateroom to pour out his heart on paper to Betty.
He was rowed out to the derelict, but stayed on
board only long enough to pick up the ancient gold
coin which he had bought in Algiers; and then, hav-
ing returned with very little delay to the woman
who waited for him, he escorted her to a hotel,
where, though it was eminently respectable, he would
not be likely to encounter any of the military or
ofﬁcial element of Gibraltar. At this time of day
the place was empty. He led his companion to a
retired corner, and seated her at a table, with her
back to the door.
As it was forbidden to a follower of the faith with
which he credited this woman to eat food prepared
by Christian hands, he could not offer her hospi-
tality. Besides, he knew that she would not remove


THE BRINGER OF A LETTER I51
her veil; and the wine which he ordered for himself,
as an excuse for entering the hotel, he left un-
touched.
“ Now for the message you are to deliver, in ad-
dition to the letter,” Peter said.
“ Monsieur, the beautiful lady is sad because she
is separated from you; but she knows that you have
a search to make, and she wishes that you may have
success. Many strange events are coming to pass
with her, and I am to beg you to write in your letter
the details of what you are doing, because — though
she cannot tell you yet why or how — if you do this,
she will then be able to help you toward the end
you have in view. Also, I am to tell your fortune
and let her know whether I have seen in my topaz
that you will succeed. But if you will begin your
letter now, and write what the lady asks, I will be
gazing into my topaz, and seeing things in your
future which I can put into words by the time you
are ready to hear them. Sometimes, at ﬁrst, I can
see nothing in the topaz; but always if I have time
and patience the vision comes.”
Peter showed no surprise, though he felt it. Such
a message from Betty was almost unbelievable.
Manners had not wished her to know of his late sec-
retary’s mission on the derelict, and even if she had
coaxed the truth from him, which seemed unlikely,
it was odd that she should entrust a stranger with
so private a conﬁdence. Still, if the message had


CHAPTER XVI
THE BEGINNING OF THE TEST
“ HAT is that?” Knight asked, pointing to
the topaz, which lay on the table at a
little distance from him.
“ It is a magic mirror, in which I see future events
reﬂected,” answered the Moorish woman.
“I should like to look at it more closely,
Peter, stretching out an insistent hand.
He thought that she started; and involuntarily
she protected her treasure with curled, brown ﬁngers.
“ Oh, monsieur, it is very sacred! ” she protested.
But Peter was merciless. He had caught a
glimpse of something which gave him a startling sug-
gestion, and he was determined to make sure.
“I shall have no faith in your predictions,” he
said quietly, “ unless I know what your magic mirror
is like.”
The great dark eyes between the folds of white
gazed piercingly into his, but Peter’s face told noth-
ing. He was learning the important lesson lately
of controlling his features and his voice. For a mo-
ment the brown hand hovered over the topaz, like
a bird over its nest, then the big square of yellow
light was obediently pushed across the table.
H
said
153


THE BEGINNING OF THE TEST 155
keep his head, to give no hint of his suspicion, lest
the bird should take alarm long before the salt was
on its tail. As for the details he had put in his
letter to Betty, he did not regret them, although he
was morally sure now that the bearer did not intend
to fulﬁl her mission.
“That’s a topaz, isn’t it?” he inquired indiﬁer-
ently. “ I should think it was rather 'a good stone,
and you ought to get a high price for it if you wanted
to sell it.”
“ But, monsieur, I do not want to sell it,” replied
the veiled woman. “Through it I make my living.
Let me tell Monsieur the vision-s I have seen.”
“ By all means,” answered Peter coolly.
“ I have seen a beautiful young lady, who loves
you. You will say it is easy for me to tell you that.
But there is more, monsieur. I see a great danger
threatening your happiness, a dark cloud waiting to
overwhelm you both. Yet you can avoid the peril.
To do so you have only to leave Gibraltar, and the
yacht on which you live. I see there an evil presence
which menaces you.”
The woman’s voice and eyes had suddenly become
so solemn and impressive, that Peter could not re-
main completely cold to their magnetism. He knew
that she was acting with some hidden motive, and
that for a purpose of her own she wished him to give
up the work to which he had set himself. Probably,
she feared discovery for herself and others with


156 A SECRET OF THE SEA
whom she was connected, and it was her object to
lure the amateur detective off the track of the secret;
still, even knowing this, the strange voice, the
stranger gaze, and the memory of certain inex-
plicable events of last night combined to produce in
Knight’s nerves a distinct thrill. What could this
woman know? How bad she induced Betty to send
her here to him? Perhaps she had read the dear,
innocent little girl’s letter, just as she meant to
read the other which she had offered to take in
return.
The thought made Peter hate the brown, treacher-
ous hands which were now clasped round the topaz,
fencing it in as it lay on the table. Then, as his
eyes touched them with a vague longing for re-
prisals, he wondered if they were real-1y brown, or if
the dark colour were a stain which would wash olI
if he could grasp their slim wrists, and hold them
under water. A ﬁerce desire to tear away the veil
which covered the false fortune teller’s face pos-
sessed him, but he told himself that the time was not
yet. Somehow, he must keep this woman within
reach; he must watch her closely and be able to seize
her when she was wanted; but he must not let her
guess now that she had been found out.
“What you tell me is rather serious,” he said.
“ What kind of harm do you see ready tO pounce
upon me, if I disregard your warning and stay wher
I am? ” '


THE BEGINNING OF THE TEST 157
“It is not only harm to yourself, monsieur,” re-
turned the woman, wamingly. “ There is harm to
others -— to one whom you dearly love. Her death,
even, it may be. And so, beware! My topaz never
deceives.”
“ But why should harm come to her—I don’t
pretend not to know whom you mean—because I
choose to live in a certain place and pursue a certain
line of action? I don’t see why that should affect
any one except myself.”
“ Nor I, monsieur, I am but human. I see noth-
ing of present or future except what my topaz tells
me. In that I see danger like a dark cloud hanging
over the beautiful head of the young lady who sent
you the letter. The cloud comes up from the deck
of a yacht, with the name Naiad on it. It is like
smoke boiling up—up from a ﬁre. There is a
lurid heart in the cloud. By the dull light I see your
face. That means you are on board the yacht. But
when your face and the light disappear together, the
cloud slowly dissolves, the yacht Naiad vanishes, and
you walk into the pictures in the topaz, to hold the
hands of your love, while all becomes radiantly
bright in your surroundings. Into that symbol I
read the meaning I have told you.”
“ Suppose, after all, you were to come on board
the yacht with me," suggested Knight, “ do you think
in that case you could see the mysterious signs more
clearly? ”


158 A SECRET OF THE SEA
A diamond seemed to ﬂash for an instant behind
the black velvet of the veiled woman’s eyes.
“Yes,” she answered, “’I am sure that I could.
But have no hope. I could tell you far more, no
doubt, on the yacht; yet I could tell you nothing that
would change your fate.”
“ You have impressed me a good deal, I confess,”
said Peter. “ But I’m not prepared to alter my
plans unless you can convince me that there’s some-
thing in your prophecies.”
“ For your sake, then, and the lady’s, I hope that
I can convince you! ” exclaimed the woman. “ Take
me on board the yacht, and I will try— try hard to
make you see that it would be well to turn your back
upon Gibraltar within a few hours.”
Peter had changed his mind, but not without rea-
son. He could not afford to let the woman slip out
of his grasp, and he did not know how to keep a
hold upon her, with all the other things he must at-
tend to simultaneously, unless he could have her on
the Xenia. But afterward, he would not let her go
lightly; and in the way in which he would introduce
her on board, he did not believe that the captain of
the port would suspect him of dishonest designs.
He would tell that official that he regarded the
woman as a suspicious character, in whose hand
might lie the key to the mystery; and she would be —
unknown to herself— a prisoner rather than a guest.
“. Well,” he said, “ it is forbidden for any stranger


THE BEGINNING OF THE TEST 159
to go on board the derelict yacht, but I have some
influence with the ofﬁcial who settles all these things,
and I will do my best to' get his permission for you
to break the rule. Then, if that magic mirror of
yours gives you any more gruesome pictures, perhaps
I shall try to get out of this business. I’m not sure
that I’m not sick of it, anyway. You might wait for
me here while I go and have a talk with the captain
of the port.”
“ Willingly,” replied the woman.
But when Peter had gone, she went to a window
and watched him out of sight. No sooner had he
disappeared than she slipped out of the hotel, in-
quired in reasonably good English of a man she
met where she could ﬁnd a telegraph-ofﬁce, and,
hurrying away in the direction indicated, it was not
long before she returned again. When Peter came
back to the hotel, after a second interview with
the captain of the port, he found the woman sit-
ting in the dim corner of the shabby, low-ceilinged
room, exactly as he had left her. She was leaning
against the wall, her head bowed, her eyes closed,
as if she had dropped asleep, and as Peter moved
a chair in approaching, she apparently waked with
a start.
Knight had succeeded in obtaining the permission
he wanted from the captain of the port, who was
interested in the appearance of a new and mysteri-
ous ﬁgure on the scene. Manners had inspired him


160 A SECRET OF THE SEA
with some of his own faith in the young man’s de-
tective abilities, and he was willing to do his part
in testing them. He agreed to let the woman go
on board the derelict and remain there until Knight
should have had a fair time to try his experiment;
afterward she would be disposed of according to
the result. He had also to inform Peter that, dur-
ing his absence, another search had been made on
the Xenia, under his own superintendence, and the
depositions of the men received. Later in the day,
two new watchers would take the place of the de-
parting ones.
The veiled woman heard the news of Knight’s
success calmly, and was very quiet and submissive in
the boat which presently took them both out to the
derelict. But when they reached the Xenia, Peter’s
watchful eyes saw that the white draperies over her
bosom rose and fell tumultuously. Her hands were
tightly clasped together under shelter of the ﬂow-
ing sleeves. He was sure it was only by a supreme
effort that she was able to control violent emotion.
When they had gained the deck of the yacht, Peter
did not let a glance of her eyes or a quiver Of her
haick escape him.
“ She is looking for something in particular,” he
told himself, “ expecting, perhaps fearing, some-
thing. Jove! If I could only get a sight of her
face I should know whether she has found it or
not.” But aloud he said: “ You shall go below


THE BEGINNING OF THE TEST I6r
with me, and have another shot at your magic mir-
ror. Perhaps the pictures it shows you will be more
deﬁnite now that you have got your wish and are on
the Xenia.”
Purposer he led her past the cage, and watched
eagerly for some indication of the impression made
upon her. But he was disappointed. If the clue
to the mystery of the derelict lay hid in the broken
cage, this woman was either ignorant of the fact
or—she was a magniﬁcent actress. She stared at
the cage, and even looked back at it in passing, but
she gave no start, she showed no trace of emotion
deeper than a surprised curiosity.
Peter’s intention had been to take her into the
saloon for the conversation which was to end in a
battle between his wits and hers; but suddenly an
impulse seized him. i
“ She shall see the packing case,” be resolved.


CHAPTER XVII
CHECK TO YOUR KING!
NIGHT made no excuse for taking the veiled
K woman to the storeroom, where the packing
case still lay open as he had ﬁrst seen it, and—
so far as he knew—untouched. He simply led
her on, and she followed, unquestioningly, her big,
eager eyes always stealthily busy, her breath com-
ing and going fast.
“Here we shall not be disturbed or watched,”
Peter said, standing aside for the woman to enter
the storeroom, then crossing the threshold quickly,
his gaze never leaving her.
She noticed the packing case on the instant of her
entrance; and this time Peter was not disappointed.
As she caught sight of it, her whole body quivered,
then stiffened itself in an effort of the muscles to
achieve self-control. She took a swift step which
brought her close to the big open box, with its
wooden grating, bent quickly to look in, and then
as quickly moved back. Knight distinctly heard
her utter a long, deep-drawn sigh, as she straight-
ened her white-draped body, and stood, her face
turned once more toward him, as if waiting in-
162


164 A SECRET OF THE SEA
of time to understand that it would be best to make
a clean breast of everything. If you will tell me
exactly what you know about the yacht Xenia, about
those who were on board of her, and why they are
not on board still, I can promise you not only that
no harm shall come to you, but that you shall re-
ceive a very large reward. I myself will give you
the equivalent of one thousand English sovereigns
for the right sort of information and plenty of it.”
“I have no information to give,” stolidly re-
peated the woman, “ except what I may see in my
topaz.”
“ One of the things I want you to tell me is about
that topaz,” said Peter. “It has an interest to
me quite apart from its magic power. I’m sure
that it has an entertaining history.” He spoke with
a certain emphasis, and the quick look the black
eyes gave him told that the woman comprehended.
Perhaps she guessed now how he had found her
out.
“ The jewel was given to me long ago,” she an-
swered, her voice unsteady. “ If you wish to learn
things which of myself I cannot possibly know, you
had better let me consult the topaz again.”
“ Very well,” Peter said, willing to humour her
for the moment, in case she had chosen this round-
about way of telling him what he really desired to
hear. " There is a table — and a chair also, if you
would like to sit down.”


CHECK TO YOUR KING! r65
“ We are then, to stay here?”
“For the present. It depends upon yourself
whether you will be allowed to gratify your very
natural curiosity by further explorations, later.”
He stepped forward, to place the one common
deal chair which the storeroom contained closer to
the shelf-like table, and in doing so saw something
which he had not noticed before. The tins of pre-
served fruit standing on the ﬂoor by the packing
case had been disturbed. Several were gone.
This discovery surprised and disconcerted Peter.
Could the watchers have been hungry for something
daintier than the fare provided for them, and have
considered it no harm to help themselves to food
which nobody wanted? It might be so, or in the
search lately superintended by the captain of the
port the tins might have been displaced, the two or
three missing ones have been carried somewhere
else.
The veiled woman was kneeling on one knee upon
the chair, her elbows on the high shelf-like table,
her draped head between her hands, her eyes on
the yellow, glittering square of the topaz.
“I see all very plainly,” she said. “I thought
it would be so when on board this yacht. The
beautiful young lady whom you love is in terrible
danger, even now. She has been stolen away from
her father, and is held as hostage for—another
woman. If that woman has not safely returned to


166 A SECRET OF THE SEA
Tangier by to-morrow at this time, the beautiful
lady will be dead.”
The words fell slowly and placidly now from the
hidden lips, as the tinkle of a fountain in a walled
Eastern garden. The woman did not even look up
to note the effect that they produced.
Peter Knight drew in his breath sharply. There
was a sudden wild confusion as of the ringing of
alarm bells in his head, so clear only a moment ago.
He had been so pleased with his own wretched little
subtleness, he had thought himself so clever, and
now—what if the woman were telling the truth?
He felt as if a hand of iron had closed round his
throat, and his voice came thickly.
“You are lying! ” he broke out, all his drawling
courtesy gone.
“ My topaz never lies. I hope that you may not
have black cause to-morrow to know that it has
shown the truth.”
“You are a devil!” cried Peter. “You want
to torture me into letting you go, and leaving me
ignorant of all that I mean to know—of all that
you might give me a short cut toward knowing;
when you whine about another woman who must
be in Tangier to-morrow, you speak of your-
self.”
“The ﬁgure in the topaz does indeed resemble
mine,” responded the woman, mildly.
“ Well, you shall not trick me again! ” exclaimed


CHECK TO YOUR KING]. 167.
Knight. “ It is impossible that you should have told
me the truth. Miss Manners is well protected by
her father. No harm can have befallen her. You
do not leave this yacht until you have confessed what
you know of the secret.”
“ My topaz gives me another picture,” purred the
veiled woman. “I see a ﬁgure all in white—a
ﬁgure like my own—going out of an hotel to
an ofﬁce where telegrams are sent. A message
ﬂies over the wires. It tells a man, who is swift
to act and who has no mercy in his heart,
that unless another message reaches him by ﬁve
o’clock this evening to say that the sender is safe
and free, one of his prisoner’s ﬁngers is to be
cut off. Ah, it would be a pity!—little white
dimpled ﬁngers they are. All the rest would miss
the one that was taken. They would never be beau-
tiful again without it, and then—think, monsieur,
of the pain to the sweet young lady who loves you so
well. In her terror and anguish she would call upon
your name, but you would not be there to help.
And if you repented afterwards in time to save her
life, to-morrow, could she ever forgive you for hav-
ing been passive while she suffered pain and mutila-
tion, which you could easily have spared her if you
had believed in the poor fortune teller and her
topaz? ”
Peter Knight glared at the veiled face in impotent
rage.


168 A SECRET OF THE SEA
“ You deserve to be strangled! ” he ﬂung at her
from between set teeth.
“ Yet Monsieur will not hurt me, I think,” the
woman said, a horrid gurgle of triumphant laughter
in her voice.
The sound of it half maddened Peter. He for-
got that he was a man and she a woman; that, ﬁend
as she might be, because of his strength and her
weakness he owed her forbearance. In that mo-
ment she was to him Betty Manners’s murderess,
an abnormal creature who exulted in torture, and
he sprang on her, seizing her by the throat, shaking
her back and forth in his fury.
With a stiﬂed cry she struggled to her feet, both
brown hands ﬂying up to catch at his and loosen their
ﬁerce hold. Somehow in the battle—a very dif-
ferent battle from that to which Peter had eagerly
looked forward —- her yashmak was unfastened, and
fell from her face, over Peter’s hands that clasped
the mufﬂed throat. Her head-covering slipped back,
and in a second the secret of the hidden face was at
Knight’s mercy.
No vision of beauty sprang to his eyes. The
woman was of middle age; her face long and hollow-
cheeked, the features not Moorish, but typically
Italian, crying out their nationality despite the brown
stain carelessly spread over them. The nose was
aquiline, the chin strangely prominent, pushing back
the small, sneering, thin-lipped mouth into insig-


CHECK TO YOUR KING! r69
niﬁcance. Now that the head-covering was dis-
placed, a thin trail of dark red hair, like a streak
of blood, wandered over the tight-stretched fore-
head above great ﬂaming, undaunted eyes.
“ Coward! ” gasped the thin lips. “ Coward and
fool! To kill me is to kill her also.”
Peter’s senses came back to him, and he released
the woman, ﬂinging her away with a gesture of ab-
horrence, so that she fell back into the chair where
she been sitting, and sat still, panting—still, save
for the action of the busy hands, which tremul'ously
replaced the loosened disguise. It was at this in-
stant that Peter heard the tramp, tramp, of heavy
boots that had no need to tread cautiously.
“ Mr. Knight! ” exclaimed the voice of the man
Brown, who had not yet been relieved from duty
by a successor. “ Mr. Knight, a telegram has been
brought out from shore for you, sir.”
“ Come and bring it here, please,” said Peter, un-
willing to leave the woman alone for a second.
The man obeyed. “They’re waiting to see if
there’s an answer, sir,” he said.
Peter took the telegram and tore it open. “ Betty
has disappeared,” he read. “ Can it be that she
has gone to you? Wire immediately. Am in
greatest anxiety.” This message was signed “ Man-
ners,” and had been sent from Tangier.
It was true, then! That sweet, innocent child had
been caught in the devouring jaws of the Mystery.


170 A SECRET OF THE SEA
She was held there as a hostage, and at any moment
sharp, death-dealing fangs might close upon her.
Peter’s heart melted within him; and, as if the
woman guessed at the words he had read, or saw
them reflected in her “ magic mirror,” her great eyes
found and deﬁed his with a stare.
“Get me some paper to write an answer—a
telegraph form, if you can ﬁnd one —” he said,
hoarsely, to the waiting Brown.
The man vanished, and, when his broad back was
turned, the woman spoke.
“ Now you will believe in the topaz,’ she whis-
pered. “ I thought that you would hear from Tan-
gier, and I am very sure that you have. But do
not dream that you can tell anything in your an-
swer which will put them on the right track. I
swear to you, it will be well for the lost one if you
do not even try to do that, for you can only make
bad worse. I telegraphed when you had left me
alone. Yet I bear no grudge against her. The
girl is merely an instrument to be used for an end.
That I can see in the topaz. It is for you, and only
you to save her if you will; and the way is simple.
I tell you again that you can do it by merely letting
me go—soon, very soon.”
Her voice dropped. Brown had returned with
a blank sheet of paper.
9


CHAPTER XVIII
WHAT THE BELL-DANCER GAVE TO BETTY
HEN Betty Manners gave money to the
bell-dancer of Tangier, and found that some-
thing had been slipped slyly into her palm, as if in
exchange, she was about to open her hand frankly
under the eyes of Lord Umberleigh, to see what
had been given her. But the stealthiness of the old
black man’s act suggested a reason for secrecy, and
the girl’s heart leaped. All her thoughts now were
bound up in Peter Knight. Nothing was really in-
teresting which had no connection with Peter Knight;
therefore it was not strange that, as some small ob-
ject slid mysteriously under her ﬁnger, her fancy
ﬂew instantly to him. What if he had followed her
to Tangier! What if, in despair of communicat-
ing with her through ordinary channels, he had hit
upon this means of sending her a message? How
foolish she should feel if she looked at the thing
before Lord Umberleigh, and then discovered that
it was a letter from Peter Knight! The idea that
he should have chosen the old dancer for a post-
man appeared rather far-fetched, since' he could not
171


I72 A SECRET OF THE SEA
have been sure that the black man would have a
chance of delivering a note; still, it was worth the
beneﬁt of the doubt, the girl decided, and accordingly
she kept her little hand tightly closed over the un-
seen thing which the bell-dancer had given.
Even the frankest and most unsophisticated girl
is cleverer at dissimulation, when necessary, than a
man. Betty’s cheeks grew a little pinker, and she
could not resist a hurried glance at the old man’s
shining, ebony face, but by no other sign did she
betray that anything had happened. Her glance
caught the eyes of the dancer—eyes like blue ber-
ries ﬂoating in huge saucers of milk; and either she
fancied it, or he ﬂashed her a warning for caution
from under frowning, fuzzy brows. It passed so
quickly that she could not be sure; but she did not
open either her lips or the ﬁngers which held the
thing that felt like a ball of paper. It was, however,
only by the severest effort that she refrained from
yielding to her curiosity, which was so intense as
almost to amount to physical pain. Supposing Peter
were somewhere in the crowd, disguised perhaps, and
watching her now, waiting anxiously for a look or a
whisper in answer to a note! Supposing it were a
note, and by one glance she could learn where he
was, how to recognize him, and what he wanted her
to do! Oh, she was dying to see what the bell-
dancer had given her! The thought of what it
might be was too exciting. Betty did not think that


THE BELL-DANCER 173
she could possibly bear it to wait much longer. By-
and-by they would be going back on board the yacht,
and if she had no opportunity of ﬁnding out what
she wanted to know before that, it might be too late.
She must make an opportunity. The question was,
how?
In the market place it would be impossible to read
a letter without being seen by Lord Umberleigh.
He was a nice-minded, honourable fellow, and would
probably keep his own counsel if he saw her opening
a mysterious ball of paper, and proceeding to read
what was written on it. But very likely her father
had told him a garbled version of the little broken
love idyll, leaving her feelings for Peter Knight out
of the question, and merely explaining the absence
of the secretary by saying that Knight had been dis-
charged for making love to his employer’s daughter.
In this case, if Lord Umberleigh saw her secretively
poring over a letter, he would almost surely suspect
who was the sender. That would be unpleasant,
though he said nothing to Manners. Suddenly
Betty became aware that she was alone with Lord
Umberleigh; this gave her the excuse for which she
had been searching.
“ We have lost Lady Haldon and Dad! ” she ex-
claimed. “Perhaps they are dawdling among the
shops, and didn’t come on here. I think we had
better go back.”
“ But we haven’t half seen the Sok,” the young


174 A SECRET OF THE SEA
man protested. “ There are lots of things I want
to show you yet and tell you about.”
“We can come back again this afternoon and to-
morrow morning too, if Dad doesn’t change his mind
and go on sooner than he has planned,” said Betty.
“ I think it would be nice, now that we have had
such a good glimpse, to wander among the shops.”
Poor Umberleigh looked disconsolate. He had
so revelled in having the girl all to himself that it
was hard to be cheated out of the hour which might
still have been his. But there was no help for it.
If Miss Manners yearned for her parent’s presence,
she must have it. Of all things he must not begin
the trip to which he had been ardently looking for-
ward by thwarting or -— worse -— boring her.
They made their escape from the crowded Sok
to the narrow streets through which they had come,
and presently found Lady Haldon and Manners in
the shop of a jeweller and seller of curiosities. It
struck Betty that the former did not look particularly
overjoyed at the meeting, and the girl asked her-
self in half-amused, half-scornful surprise whether
Lady Haldon could possibly design to captivate
Manners. It was said, Betty had heard, that the
late earl had not left her too well provided for,
and as she had no son, the estates had gone with
the title to a distant cousin. Perhaps ; but the
bare thought of so prosaic and middle-aged a ﬂirta-
tion was displeasing to the girl of eighteen. To


THE BELL-DANCER 17;
her, a woman of forty might almost as well be a
hundred and have done with it, and she did not be-
lieve that twenty Lady Haldons could conquer her
hard-headed father.
Once inside the shop, Betty opened a pretty netted
gold purse which she carried; and, still keeping the
bell-dancer’s gift hidden in her palm, took from the
purse a folded half-sheet of paper on which she
had written down a list of things she wished to buy in
Tangier. “Let me see,” she sind, ostentatiously,
“ What all do I want?” Then, so that she need
not hurt her conscience by telling even a moderately
white ﬁb, she did actually re-read the items; but
when she had glanced them over, with a beating
heart she opened the closed hand, under cover of
the list. Yes, the thing she had been hiding so
long, even from herself, was indeed a crumpled
ball of paper, no larger than a walnut.
Moving apart from Lady Haldon and Manners,
who were examining some curious old diamond but-
tons, and turning away from Lord Umberleigh, who
seemed inconveniently inclined to follow, the girl
began to unfold the paper with ﬁngers that trembled,
in time to the beating of her blood. Something
was written on one side of it—that was certain!
Betty’s ﬁrst sensation on beginning to read the
written words was of disappointment — disappoint-
ment so bitter that she could feel her heart sinking.
But as her eyes, almost ready to ﬁll with tears, ran


176 A SECRET OF THE SEA
rapidly along the faintly traced lines, they bright-
ened, and at last she could have sung for joy. To
be sure, the letter was not from Peter, but it was
almost as good. It purported to have been sent by
his request and Betty did not for an instant doubt
the writer’s truthfulness. Why should she? Who
could have taken this unknown person into their
love secret, if not Peter himself, in sore need of an
ally?
The letter was in English, but so worded as to
show that the writer was of another country; and it
had been written with pencil.
“ Gracious Young Lady (it began) :
“One who loves you faithfully, but the name of
him it is better not to say here, is my good friend.
We have for a long time been friends to each other.
Knowing me so well, he tell me much of his af-
fairs. Last night he arrived at my house, here in
Tangier, where he has come before in years ago.
He have tell me he follow you here from Gibraltar,
because it is important of all things he see and speak
with you. It must be soon or not ever. Yet he
know not how to do, till I say. Here, in my house,
is it not? I, too, am a lady, but married to an ofﬁ-
cial under the Government. If you will trust your-
self to come for a little time, a short hour, I will
happily receive you, as a friend and chaperon. You


THE BELL-DANCER 177
can talk what is needed to say together, and then
you can go again to your people, and no one can
ever know it has been. My friend implores it of
you on his knees, and I, too, for him; he is so good
and ﬁne, and he has come so far, and must so soon
go far away where you cannot see. But it must be
that your noble father do not know, or he will not
permit. It must be secret from all. Through this
entire day he waits you, at my house. How to ar-
range, I know not to advise. Your affairs are
strangers to me. But if you can separate from your
friends, or make a promenade with your maid, by
your two selfs, the bell-dancer, Sidi Mahrez, will
expect for you, and be ever ready to escort, where
may you be in Tangier it matters not, for he shall
watch well. He is faithful to me, because of much
I often give. Have then no fears. I say to Sidi
Mahrez at a good hour this morning, look for the
blonde young lady, very beautiful, who will be surely
to walk in the town today with the two English
noble people, brother and sister, you have often see
in the winter. This letter, give it to her when you
ﬁnd possible, with no one seeing. My friend say,
if you really love, it will be that you come, for it
is the one way, and then perhaps years not to see.
My note, when you have read it, you will be best
to burn with ﬁre, till it is no more seen. If today
it is not possible to come, tomorrow he still expects


178 A SECRET OF THE SEA
and waits, but after that no more. And today he
hopes for, because he loves well.
“Your friend and his,
“LOLA H. M.”
Peter in Tangier, and perhaps going away for
years! There seemed so much to think of, so
much to wonder at, that Betty was confused, and
could scarcely think. She could only feel, and she
knew that, at any cost, she and Peter must meet.
She must know what were the “important things”
he had come from Gibraltar to Tangier to tell.
Maybe he meant to beg that she would leave her
father and run away with him; but that would not
be like Peter. He was too honourable. Had he
not acted almost as if he hated her sometimes on
board the Naiad, rather than let her guess that he
cared? Of course she had guessed; any girl would;
but that was not his fault; and often she had been
perfectly miserable, because one couldn’t be quite
sure that one wasn’t mistaken.
It seemed simple enough, now, that the bell-dancer
had been able to single her out from among other
foreign visitors to Tangier. “Lola H. M.,”
Peter’s friend, explained all that: and Lord Umber-
leigh had told her earlier in the morning that old
Sidi Mahrez knew him very well. It was easy for
Peter to surmise that she would walk in the town
and go up to the Sok with Lord Umberleigh and


THE BELL-DANCER 179
his sister; and everything had fallen out so far ex-
actly as they had calculated. As Betty was won-
dering how she could possibly contrive to go and
spend an hour at Lola’s house, unknown to her
father and the others, Lord Umberleigh joined her,
and his talk prevented her from forming any deﬁ-
nite plan. She grew frantic with impatience for
ﬁve more quiet minutes alone, but it seemed useless
to hope for such a boon. Manners called her to
look at the diamond buttons, and she had not a mo-
ment to herself until they arrived at a hotel where
it was arranged that they should lunch, rather than
break into the day’s sight-seeing by going back to
the yacht.
This hotel stood on a hill, in the midst of a shady
garden, and commanded a splendid view of Tangier,
its blinding white houses, its gaily coloured, domed
roofs, its mosques and minarets, and the sapphire
expanse of sparkling sea. There was a short cut,
Betty noticed, which led down toward the market
place, if not directly to it, but the way which they
had chosen was perhaps pleasanter and a less difﬁ-
cult ascent. As they came in sight of this short
cut, Betty was attracted to look toward it by a
faint tinkling of bells. Standing in a narrow, stony
path was Sidi Ma-hrez, the bell-dancer; and as the
party passed, it seemed to the girl that the old man
made a sign to her, as if he were beckoning.
It was in this hotel that Lord Umberleigh and his


180 A SECRET OF THE SEA
sister had spent several months, and they were very
much at home there. Lady Haldon suggested to
Betty that it would be nice to take a room and
“make themselves pretty for luncheon ”; and this
gave the girl an idea at which she caught eagerly.
“ If one is sleepy one might lie down for a little
while afterward in the room,” she said, “ before go-
ing out to see more things. It will be so hot and
glaring directly after luncheon.”
Lady Haldon agreed. She was inwardly sure
that, with Manners to be agreeable to, she would
not wish to sleep. But if Betty chose to do so, it
would be pleasant for her to entertain the girl’s
father en tEte-a-téte; and Ian could amuse himself
meanwhile. So it was arranged. A sitting room
and bedroom were engaged for the afternoon.
Lady Haldon slyly beautiﬁed herself with a few fur-
tive dabs of rouge and powder, and she and the girl
joined the men in the garden, where a ﬂower-
decorated table was already laid. Handsome Turk-
ish rugs had been spread on the grass underneath,
and brown-faced Moorish servants in picturesque
costumes stood ready to wait upon the distinguished
guests.
It seemed to Betty that luncheon would never be
over. Course after course followed one another in
digniﬁed procession. But at last the end came, and
Manners and Lord Umberleigh being given per-


THE BELL-DA N CER 1 8 1
mission to smoke, Lady Haldon coquettishly al-
lowed herself to be persuaded by the millionaire to
try one of his cigarettes, and—Betty’s time had
come.


CHAPTER XIX
THE HOUSE WITH THE COURTYARD
“ HAT are you all going to do next? ” asked
the girl, looking from Lady Haldon to her
father.
“ Well,” returned Manners, “ Umberleigh has
been telling me about a drive that one ought to take.
One goes out into the hills, and there’s a view, and
it’s cool. It takes about three or four hours to go
and come, but the day is young, and I don’t see that
we could spend our afternoon in any better way.”
A bright rose-pink burned on Betty’s cheeks, and
her eyes were stars. It seemed to her that Fate was
going out of its way to befriend her. She wisely
kept her intentions to herself until the carriage was
ordered for the drive, and then said that as her head
ached a little (which was quite true) she would
prefer to stay behind and rest.
“ We can keep these rooms,” she suggested,
“ and I shall be safe and happy till you come back
and pick me up.”
Of course there were objections, especially from
Umberleigh, whose whole afternoon would be
spoiled by Betty’s absence; but her father was in-
182


HOUSE WITH THE COURTYARD I83
clined to let the girl have her own way. She really
did look feverish, he thought; and as she had be-
haved very well about his coup d’état with Peter
Knight, and had besides been satisfactory in her
treatment of Lord Umberleigh, he did not see why
she should not sleep instead of drive today if she
chose.
They had lunched early, and by half-past two
those who were going on the excursion had driven
away from the hotel in an odd vehicle protected
from the sun with a white awning. Betty was left
alone.
She went into the suite of rooms engaged for the
afternoon, but she did not lie down. Being a very
human girl, she looked at herself in the mirror,
altered a little straying curl or two on her forehead,
arranged her big white gauze hat at a more be-
coming angle, rejoiced that her white muslin frock
was, to all appearance, as fresh- as when her maid
had put her into it in the morning, and was glad
that she had happened to choose a dress which Peter
had once admired. How heavenly it would be to
see him again, and what heaps they would have
to say to each other, about past, present, and future!
Presently, swinging her white sunshade carelessly,
she strolled out through one of the long windows into
the garden. There she looked anxiously about, but
nobody was in sight, not even the Moorish servants,
who, with the deft speed of Genie in the Arabian


184 A SECRET OF THE SEA
Nights, had already removed table, rugs, and chairs.
As an excuse for being there, Betty plucked a white
rose, and slipped it through her belt, in case hidden
eyes might be looking. Then she wandered under
the olive trees, as if aimlessly, and—still without
having met any one —— darted ﬁnally into the walled
path which was a short cut to the town. Now
everything depended upon Sidi Mahrez. If he had
given up his mission in despair, or if he had grown
weary of watching and dropped into a noonday
nap, she would be helpless, for she could not possibly
ﬁnd the house of “ Lola H. M.,” Peter Knight’s
kind friend, without a guide.
She had walked a little way down the stony path,
growing more anxious with every step she took, when
suddenly she heard a soft patter of naked feet be-
hind her. She turned quickly, and saw the old bell-
dancer (carefully shorn of his bells now) almost at
her shoulder. Evidently he had been hiding in the
hotel garden, had seen (her start, and followed as
soon as it seemed prudent.
He made a sign which warned the girl to silence
and caution when she opened her lips to try if he
could understand a little French or English; and
then, with a certain dramatic grace, made Betty com-
prehend by dumb Show that they must not be seen
walking together. He slipped ahead of her in the
narrow path, and indicated the distance which it was
advisable to put between them. At last, still with


HOUSE WITH THE COURTYARD I8]
seen, and she began to hope that, after all, “ Lola ”
might give them a draw-ing room to themselves.
The house was built partly in Oriental fashion,
for, entering a doorway, they crossed -a large room
or hall, entirely unfurnished, and came out on the
other side into a square courtyard, with a path of
pink and yellow gravel running all round it, and a
melancholy fountain and a few orange trees, loaded
with golden fruit, in the middle. This courtyard
they also crossed, and entered the house again on the
opposite side. Here they passed through room
after room, all much alike, with their rugs and
divans, ascended a stone stairway with shallow steps,
went on through more dim rooms, until at length the
servant paused at the foot of three steps which led
up to a room with one large, deep-set, closely barred
window opposite the door. Bowing, she motioned
Betty to enter, and the girl obeyed, springing eagerly
up the steps, expecting to ﬁnd “Lola” waiting to
receive her.
But no one was there; and to all save Eastern eyes
the room must have seemed an odd one. In front of
the window, which was raised on a sort of platform
above the ﬂoor, rugs were spread; on them were
piled many beautifully embroidered cushions. In an
alcove were more cushions and more rugs, folded up.
The window was divided into two sashes, both of
which stood open, but the close iron bars on the out-
side, such as one sees in the windows of all harems


188 A SECRET OF THE SEA
in Morocco, looked as if made on purpose to prevent
the occupants of the room from leaning out.
Betty sat down on the cushions in the window
seat, and looked away toward the sea. From this
window very little of the town was visible; only the
wide expanse of water and sky.
“ Charmed, magic easements, opening on the foam
Of desolate seas in fairylands forlorn,”
she quoted to herself. And a sense of isolation and
desolation settled down upon the girl. She wished
that Peter’s friend would come to welcome her, or,
better still, that Peter himself would appear. It
seemed a shame to waste even a moment, when the
time they two could have together was so precious;
yet many, many moments were being deliberately
wasted. By-and-by it really began to appear very
strange that she should be left alone so long.
The girl wore a little bracelet-watch on her wrist.
She had not thought to glance at it when she ﬁrst
came into the house, but after she had sat so long
in the room that she knew the pattern of embroidery
and spangles on every cushion, and had hurt her eyes
by continued staring at the glittering sea, she grew
very impatient and restless, and remembered the
watch. It was close upon four o’clock, and a hasty
calculation told her that she must have been kept
waiting more than half an hour.
Perhaps, she tried to console herself by arguing,


HOUSE WITH THE COURTYARD 189
“ Lola ” was the kind of woman who took ages to
dress herself, and never was ready for anything at
the right time. Perhaps it would be considered a
terrible thing in this country if she and Peter met
without a chaperon. “ Lola’s” letter had made some
suggestion about chaperoning her. Probably this
horrid delay would turn out to be something idiotic
of that sort; but really it was too bad. It had
seemed providential that this chance of a glorious,
long afternoon with Peter had suddenly offered it-
self, when she had hoped at most to steal an hour
away, with a frightful fuss to pay for it afterward.
And “ Lola ” could not possibly know that she had
several hours to spare. It was most inconsiderate.
Poor little Betty’s cheeks grew pinker and pinker
with vexation, and nobody who had seen her fuming
at the barred window would have dreamed of the
pretty dimples which hid themselves for happier
hours. She poked the cushions with her sunshade,
and even pushed them viciously with the pointed toe
of a small white shoe. She changed her place from
right to left, she sighed and frowned reproachfully
at a softly tinted rug which hung like a curtain over
the door. Finally, when it was ten minutes past
four, she could stand the suspense no longer, but
sprang up, and as no bell was visible, determined to
go bravely in search of a servant, and demand that
Madame should be reminded of her guest’s existence.
She pulled aside the rug which hid the doorway, pre-


190 A SECRET OF THE SEA
paring to run down the three steps which she remem-
bered on the other side, when to her surprise she was
confronted by a closed door.
It must have been shut with precaution to make no
noise, for she had not heard a sound, and had sup-
posed that the door behind the curtain remained wide
open. -She tried it impatiently, but it would not
yield, and for the ﬁrst time a chill suspicion that
something was wrong — very wrong — crept shiver-
ingly through her veins.


192 A SECRET OF THE SEA
the East than in the newer countries that she knew.
Anything might happen in a place like this. She
pressed her trembling body against the door and
called, “ Peter— Peter—help! ” at the top of her
girlish voice.
' No answer come, save a hollow echo of her own
voice wandering like a sad little ghost through empty
rooms.
The girl’s knees shook under her, so that she could
scarcely stand, but again and again she uttered her
desolate cry. Again and again it was echoed, with
no other following sound, except that the air seemed
to be full of mysterious rustlings. She looked this
way and that, half expecting to see a door in the wall
open, and a jealous, tiger-woman spring out to stop
her cries.
Once when Betty Manners had been a very little
girl, a cruel nurse had locked her into a dark ward-
robe built into the wall of an old-fashioned house.
There she had been left for hours, until she had
nearly died from fear of the imaginary horrors
which her excited fancy had conjured up. Now she
began to feel as she had felt then, as if she were
stiﬂing, dying. She ran to the barred window and
screamed for help until her voice broke, and she
burst into a passion of self-pitying tears.
Out there on the blue sea the Naiad lay at an-
chor— the pretty white yacht which had been her
home for weeks, and where she had been happy with


WHERE WAS PETER? 193
Peter. There was her dear little stateroom waiting
for her, and the kindly, middle-aged maid, who had
been with her ever since she left school. Soon her
dinner-dress would be laid out, and her bath would
be got ready— soothing warm water, scented with
eau-de-Cologne, to rest her after the long, tiring day
of sight-seeing. Would she ever go on board the
dear Naiad again? Would she ever see any of the
people she loved, and who cared for her? Oh,
where was Peter? How could he—how could he
let such a horrible thing happen to a poor child like
her? But, of course, it was not Peter’s fault. Per-
haps it was all a trick from beginning to end, and he
was not even in Tangier.
Yet why, she asked herself desperately, should
any one in the world wish to steal her away from
her father, even if they could have found out enough
to make up. such a story as that which had trapped
her? She thought of many things, and decided it
was possible that she had been kidnapped for a ran-
som, as it might have got abroad that her father was
a millionaire. It seemed too dreadful, too strange
to be true; for, although one read of such affairs in
the East, or in far Southern countries, they always
happened to other people — the kind of other people
one never knew, but only read of in the newspapers.
She remembered how she had been warned to de-
stroy the letter, and would have given much if she had
disregarded the warning, because if she had dropped


194 A SECRET OF THE SEA
the crumpled ball of paper in the hotel, it would be
comparatively easy for her father to trace her, when
he returned from the long drive and found that she
had mysteriously disappeared. Suddenly she choked
with the fear that her father might fancy she had
run away to join Peter Knight. Oh, if he thought
that, he would not look for her at all in the town; he
might never ﬁnd her! The Naiad might sail away,
and she would be left behind, alone, in this terrible
place, at the mercy of cruel people who had tricked
and imprisoned her here. She began to hope now
that she had been kidnapped with ransom as an ob-
ject, for then word of some kind would be sent to her
father; and, besides, they would not dare to murder
her, because, until she was redeemed, she would be a
valuable asset.
This idea was so cheering that Betty stopped cry-
ing, and looked at her watch. It was half-past ﬁve.
Manners and the others had expected to ﬁnish their
drive and be back at the hotel by six. In half an
hour more they would know that she was gone.
Then -— but who could tell what would happen then?
As the girl asked herself this question, disconso-
lately, she heard a sound at the door. It was being
unlocked. She sprang up, her heart thumping, her
eyes on the portiére. .
The drive occupied a rather longer time than Lord
Umberleigh had told Manners it would take, and it


WHERE WAS PETER? 195
was nearer seven than six when their white-awninged
carriage drew up as close to the hotel as such vehicles
could go. It was really Lady Haldon’s fault that
they were so late, for there was a quaint little inn
hidden away among the hills, where it was amusing
to stop for coffee or sherbet in the afternoon, and she
had been anxious to show it to Manners. Umber-
leigh had frowned at the proposal, and touched his
sister’s foot disapprovingly, saying aloud that it was
too bad to leave Miss Manners so long alone. But
Lady Haldon had been sure that Betty would not
mind, and as the scenery was charming, Manners
found the excursion an anodyne for his private wor-
ries. Therefore they had gone to the inn, and had
drunk sherbet in a garden looking out over a mar-
vellous view; and when they arrived again at the
hotel in Tangier, Lady Haldon was planning to be
particularly sweet, with a view to disarming Betty.
The air, which had been burnt up by the sun in
the blazing May afternoon, was exquisitely cool now,
and they expected to ﬁnd Betty in the garden. Not
seeing her there, Lady Haldon peeped through one
of the long French windows of the sitting room.
Lord Umberleigh was standing under a tree close
behind, waiting with an expectant face, and his sis-
ter smiled at him over her shoulder.
“ No fair maiden here! ” she proclaimed. “ Can
it be that she has been sleeping all this time? I’ll
go and see.”


WHERE WAS PETER? 197
he could tell about the movements of the young lady
who had stopped behind.
The man, who was French, appeared surprised.
Mademoiselle had not been seen. It was supposed
that she was in her rooms which Monsieur had taken
for the day. Servants were hastily summoned, but
no one had any information to give, until at last one
of the men, who had waited upon the party at lunch,
was able to say that he thought he had seen the young
lady walking in the garden, soon after the carriage
had driven away, but he knew nothing of her after
that.
Manners was not yet really alarmed, but he was
angry with his daughter. He and Umberleigh
started immediately to walk down to the town, and
the girl’s father grumbled about the inconsiderate-
ness of young persons who did not care whether
other people’s dinners were spoiled or not. The
idea in his mind was that the girl had gone on a
little private shopping expedition among the bazaars,
and had been unable to tear herself away. Of
course, she must be there, since in all Tangier there
was no other place which would tempt a young
American girl to wander about alone.
But the two men went from shop to shop, and
nowhere were they rewarded by the sight of a
slender little ﬁgure in white, with a big gauzy hat
for a halo. At last, when they had come to an end
of Tangier’s attractions, they began to ask ques-


198 A SECRET OF THE SEA
tions; but the shopkeepers, who remembered the
beautiful blonde young lady from the morning, were
certain that she had not passed this way since then.
Now, at last, Manners began to be anxious, and
Umberleigh looked pale and miserable. He had
not realized until now how wholly he was wrapped
up in Betty Manners. They were on their way to
apply to the police, and Umberleigh had suggested
a visit to the American Consul, whom he knew very
well, when the bell-dancer, Sidi Mahrez, suddenly
appeared like a dark shadow, stealing out of a dim,
narrow street, like a crack between two rows of
little shops and houses.
At sight of him, Umberleigh stopped, and beckon-
ing from his shop-door a merchant who could act as
an interpreter, he requested him to ask the old man
if he had lately seen the young American lady for
whom he had danced in the morning. Sidi Mahrez
listened solemnly, his old eyes blinking; then gabbled
rapidly to the interpreter for a moment.
“ He says,” the merchant translated, “that he
met the young lady early in the afternoon, walking
toward the quay, with an Englishman, who was
also young. They were walking quickly, as if they
were in haste, and talking together with great eager-
ness.”
“Tell him to describe the man,” said Manners,
brusquely.
The shopkeeper put the question, but the bell-


WHERE WAS PE TER? 199
dancer shook his head. The lady was so beautiful
that he had not looked long at her companion. He
knew only that he was a young Englishman. And
this Sidi Mahrez said with perfect gravity, gazing
straight into Manners’s face.


IVHAT DOES MONSIEUR MEAN? 201
assure him she knew) that she held her gaoler at
her mercy.
“ What does Monsieur mean to do with me?”
she quietly said.
Peter stared at her gloomily. “If I could do
with you what you deserve, I would put you in
prison,” he growled.
“ Ah, but since Monsieur cannot do that, and since
he cannot keep me here without sacriﬁcing an inno
cent young girl who loves and trusts him? He is
not sure I speak the truth, I know that well, or it
would be easy to decide. Yet if he hesitates too
long in making his decision, the proof that I have
lied in no single particular will arrive after a time
by post, in a packet so terrible that Monsieur will
pray for his own death; and then it will be too late
to wish in an agony of regret that he had believed,
and acted differently.”
Peter continued to stare at her, frowning. “ She
has found out what she came on board to ﬁnd out,”
he said to himself, and was tempted to tell the
woman in so many words what he read in her ac-
tions, her words, and her baffling eyes; but he would
not, for fear of putting her upon her guard, and
afterward repenting his rashness. “ She knew what
she wanted to know when she saw the packing-
case I was fool enough to show her. From that
moment she was a different creature; bolder, more
self-conﬁdent. A frightful crime has been com-


202 A SECRET OF THE SEA
mitted — a crime scarcely paralleled, perhaps—-
and if she wasn’t a party to it, at least she is in the
secret. She awaited news in Tangier, and she heard
of the Xenia as a derelict; but evidently she expected
something more, which didn’t happen, “and because
it didn’t happen she was dying for an excuse to get
on board, where she hoped to pick up a lost clue.
Whether she’s pleased with what she has discovered
or not, who can tell? But at all events, she knew
that things were very wrong from her point of view
before she came on, and now she’s quite ready to
go. All she wants of me is permission to leave, and
an assurance that I’ll not meddle any further in
what concerns her and her friends. That’s all; but
to me it’s everything. To abandon the search is to
give up Betty; yet not to abandon it—I daren’t
think of the alternative, if it’s true that Betty has
been kidnapped.”
“ What is it that you want me to do? ” he asked,
slowly.
“ To let me go at once. You know that, mon-
sieur."
“ And if I do? ”
“I will then send word to those who await a
message from me that I am safe, and the girl of your
love will also be safe— for to-day.”
“ You talk no more now of ‘magic mirrors.’ '
You admit that Miss Manners has been kidnapped
by your friends."


204 A SECRET OF THE SEA
' 110011 ——
“What, then, do you think my ‘capacity ’ is on
board this yacht? ”
“I do not think; I know. You are here as a
detective. It is simple to see that; besides, it is
known in the town.”
“If you know so much, you must also
be aware that it’s not in my power to order
the authorities here to leave the derelict Yacht
alone.”
“ I do not expect that. But the authorities should
be left to act for themselves.”
“ You mean that you’re not afraid of them. You
don’t want interested persons or experts to engage
in investigations?”
“ As to that, you must be of the opinion which
pleases you best, monsieur. But time is ﬂying. If
I do not send my second message early this after-
,9
“ Don’t repeat your brutal threats. They sicken
me, and would you, if you were even half human.
Look here, I will make this concession. I’ll take
you off the Xenia myself into the town, and I will
stand by while you send a telegram, of which I
won’t ask to see the address. If you can get an
answer, with a message dictated by Miss Manners,
concerning something which no one but she and I
could possibly know, I will believe that your story
has truth in it; and rather than risk some foul cruelty
to her on the part of your unscrupulous friends I’ll


WHAT DOES MONSIEUR MEAN? 205
let you go back to Tangier scot free. Do you agree
to that? ”
The woman thought for a moment. “Yes, I
agree to that. So far, so good,” she said, in her
odd French. “ But afterward; you leave the Xenia?
You give up the work you are doing? ”
“ I will answer that question when I have seen a
reply to the telegram which I propose your send-
mg.”
“Very well, monsieur,” returned the woman,
coolly.
And her readiness in agreeing to the terms Peter
had named was not wholly reassuring. He argued
to himself that, unless she were reasonably sure of
obtaining such a message as he had demanded, she
would appear less conﬁdent. Still, there was the
hope that she might be “ blufﬁng.”
It was just as this bargain had been struck that
Brown came to the door again, and inquired if he
might have a few words of private conversation
with Mr. Knight. Peter, not wishing to leave the
woman alone, or even turn his back upon her for a
moment, was inclined to tell the man that he might
speak before her, as she understood no English.
But, on second thoughts, he was not so sure that this
was a fact. She looked like an Italian and she
talked bad French. She had denied all knowledge
of English, but that was not to say that she did not
possess it.


WHAT DOES MONSIEUR MEAN? 207
woman objected, on the plea that the person for
whom it was intended could read neither French,
English, Spanish, nor Italian, the only modern lan-
guages in which Peter was proﬁcient. Whether she
told the truth he could not know, but he was obliged
to take her word, and trust her to wire what she
chose, since if she followed a message written out
by him, he would have no means of judging if it
were a true copy. After all, he was principally con-
cerned with the answer, which must be what he re-
quired, or the enemy could expect nothing from him.
The next few hours were among the most weari-
some of Peter’s life. He would not allow the
woman to go out of his sight, lest she should slip
away. She offered no protest against this dogged
surveillance, but the time must have been tedious
for her as well as for him. Now that the violence
which Knight had done to her disguise had in-
formed him that she was not Moorish, there was no
further need for acting on her part. She could take
Christian food, and was apparently glad to have it,
though she would not lift her veil and eat openly in
a restaurant. She allowed Peter to buy her food,
and managed to dispose of fruit and biscuits sur-
reptitiously, while he beguiled a part of the time be-
fore an answer could arrive at the paste restante,
by having a late luncheon at the old hotel.
At last the woman announced that her friends
might have had time to' reply. Together she and


CHAPTER XXII
THE MIRROR WITH THE SANDALWOOD FRAME
T was no longer necessary to keep the woman in
sight. She must now produce Betty, well and
unharmed, within twenty-four hours, if she expected
to win the game she had been so skilfully playing;
and as Peter had had proof of the kidnapping, the
woman might, provided she did not try to steal on
board the Xenia for further exploration, dispose as
she pleased of her time.
“ Twenty-four hours — twenty-four hours! ” the
words kept repeating themselves over and over in
Knight’s head, when he had let the white ﬁgure ﬂit
out of his sight. In twenty-four hours this agoniz-
ing suspense concerning Betty would be ended in one
way or the other. In twenty-four hours he might,
without breaking his promise, turn the tables upon
the enemy.
That in itself, even if there were not so much at
stake, would be a keen satisfaction. He had been
outwitted, practically brought to his knees, by a
woman who (though he had torn the material veil
from her face) kept her identity and her intimate
surroundings still hidden as behind a veil of mys-
tery. To outwit her in his turn would be sweet,

210


THE MIRROR 21 1
and he would have bartered his right arm for the
brain of a Lecoq, the'exchange to be made within
the hour.
He remembered, in the midst of his anxiety for
Betty, that he had not yet written his letter of in-
quiry to Madame Lucette et Cie., at Naples. NOW,
since the need for haste pressed desperately, it oc-
curred to him to telegraph fully—describing the
‘ dresses he had meant to send, and asking for a reply
to all his questions, also by wire. He wrote out a
telegram almost as long as a letter. Calculating the
cost, he found that it would be close upon three
pounds, and he prepaid an answer of the same
length. After this followed another long interval,
of waiting. Peter returned to Xenia, having ar-
ranged that any telegram which arrived should be
sent out to him.
Evening fell, and he was busily trying to work
out a new theory which he had begun to test in the
dead owner’s stateroom, when one of the new men
knocked at the door, announcing a telegram. Peter
took it, and, tearing it open as he spoke, directed that
the bearer should wait in case there was a reply
to send back to shore. The man disappeared, and
eagerly Peter read the answer from Madame Lu-
cette, of Naples.
“Costumes described made about two months
ago for young American lady named Arnold, said


THE MIRROR 213
watching the departure of the boat with an air of
languid interest.
“ Funny thing,” Knight heard one say to the
other, “ I thought I saw a third person in the boat as
it came alongside—somebody wrapped in a big
black cloak, lying in the stern. But I must have
made a mistake, I suppose, for there’s only the two
now—the chap rowing and the telegraph chap.”
“That’s all there'ever was, accordin’ to my reck-
oning,” answered the other. “I didn’t see no ﬁg-
ure in a black cloak. The queer things you’ve heard
about this ’ere little craft have upset your digestion
a bit, mebbe.”
‘,‘ Rot!” growled the ﬁrst. “I ain’t no more
upset than you are.”
Peter moved away, attaching no importance to
the argument, his whole mind for the moment on
the telegram, and what it would mean in his in-
vestigation. The gossip it reported concerning the.
love affairs of a young American heiress threw no
light upon the dark mystery of the derelict, but it
conﬁrmed Peter’s opinion that the unknown lady of
the Xenia had not been Manners’s adored Betty
Desmond, lost seven and twenty years ago. Be-
tween the case of Betty Desmond and that of the
American, Miss Arnold, there was, however, one
curious coincidence. Each had vanished on the eve
of her wedding, and left no trace behind. Could it
be that the owner of the Xenia had been responsible


2I6 A SECRET OF THE SEA
ing staterooms, and there was nothing on the dress-
ing table, which must be pushed aside to admit of
the newly discovered door being fully opened. Peter
pulled it out, and saw-—— as he had hoped to see —
a cabinet. It was lined with crimson velvet and had
two shelves, on one of which lay three bundles of let-
ters, kept together by twists of thin gold cord, while
on the other were two small volumes of uniform size,
bound in black Russia leather. Peter took down
from the upper shelf one of the bundles of letters.
They had no envelopes, and on being counted proved
to be thirteen in number. All were in English, had
evidently been written by the same hand—that
hand a woman’s— and the paper was yellow with
age. The next parcel contained six letters, two at
the bottom having been written by a woman, the
four on the top by a man; and all six were in Italian.
The third packet held only three letters, daintily and
prettily written by a woman’s hand on thick, cream-
laid paper, with “ Mabel” in a gilded imitation of
the same handwriting scrawled across the top.
There was something repugnant in the idea of
reading these letters, but Peter decided that the dis-
agreeable task was justiﬁed, and he laid the three
packets on the dressing-table to attend to later,
meanwhile transferring his attention to the remain-
ing contents of the cabinet, the two small Russia-
leather-bound books. They proved to be exactly
alike, perfectly plain, without monogram or initial,


THE MIRROR 217
and each kept such secrets as it might contain se-
cured by means of a tiny gold padlock.
Peter did not remember seeing a key on the dress-
ing table; and the most likely conclusion was that
it had disappeared with the master of the yacht. If
the books, which Peter did not doubt were diaries,
had to be opened, violence must be done to the little
gold locks.
Peter eyed the twin volumes with intense curiosity,
mingled with the same repugnance he had for the
task of reading a dead man’s letters. It might be
that neither letters nor books would solve the my:-
tery of the derelict; yet some things written there
might indirectly bear upon it; and if the books were
diaries, setting forth frankly in black and white the
story of the writer’s life, the chances were in favour
of important discoveries concerning Betty Desmond.
Into the midst of Peter’s thoughts broke sounds
from outside, which came to him through the open
port-hole.
“Another boat has come out to us,” he said to
himself. “ Pray Heaven it’s a telegram from Man-
ners, about Betty.”
He could not wait quietly for news to be brought
to him, but hurriedly tossing back the letters and the
two little black books into the secret cabinet, and
snapping shut the mirror door, he ran out of the
stateroom and up to the deck. There he arrive-d
just in time to receive, not a telegram, but Manners


220 A SECRET OF THE SEA
“Lord Umberleigh and Lady Haldon have
stopped behind in Tangier,” he went on, “in the
hope of getting hold of some clue; and of course the
police are buzzing like a hive of bees. I have of-
fered a reward of ﬁve thousand dollars, and no ques-
tions to be asked. It should have been more but
our consul advised that sum. Now that I’m cer-
tain Betty hasn’t come here to you, when we’ve had
a talk, I’ll go back myself as fast as the Naiad can
steam, for it was in Tangier we saw the last of her;
and since you know nothing more than we know, it’s
there we have the best hope of getting on her track.
Great Heaven! it seems that there’s a curse upon
me, Knight. I loved a girl whose name was Betty.
She was snatched away behind a veil of mystery,
which is as thick to-day as it was seven and twenty
years ago. My wife I did not care for, but she gave
I me a daughter to love, and I named her Betty. She
grows to be a woman, and becomes my one heart
interest in life. Then she, too, disappears in cir-
cumstances as extraordinary, as mysterious, as be-
fore. I can’t make it seem true. Ever since the
thing happened, I’ve been feeling that I shall wake
up and ﬁnd that I’ve been dreaming. But what
about that theory of yours you mentioned in the
telegram which answered mine? Why do you sus-
pect a plot to kidnap the child? I suppose you are
thinking of a scheme for a big ransom? ”
“ No,” said Peter. “ That is the obvious thing;


WHEN THE LIGHT FAILED 221
but it wasn’t what I meant. There were reasons
why I couldn’t elaborate my idea in that telegram.
The fact is, I was in a very strange position, and did
the only thing I saw my way to do at the time. It
didn’t occur to me that you would suspect I had
sent it, simply to put you off the right track.”
“Well, you must admit,” said Manners, some-
what shamefacedly, “ that it also was rather an
obvious thing. The child cared for you, and re-
sented my opposition, though she behaved very well
on the whole — so well that I got thinking it might
have been a blind. A runaway marriage might have
been the plan; or, if you could have induced her to
back you up in the idea, you might have spirited her
away, and demanded any sum you liked as ransom.
It would have been rather a smart way of making
a fortune in twenty-four hours.”
“You know you put me down as lacking in
genius,” said Peter, dryly, “so I’m surprised you
credited me with being up to such ‘smart ways.’
I confess they’re beyond me, and I shouldn’t have
had the wit to try that last scheme, if you hadn’t
given me a present of it. I’m afraid I’m not quite
as grateful for that present as I might be; neverthe-
less, I’ve very glad that you are here. It helps me '
out of the difﬁculty I spoke of, for there are things
which I can tell you that couldn’t well be put in a
_telegram.”
“ You have something to tell me, then?” asked


222 A SECRET OF THE SEA
Manners, quickly. “ Something which concerns
Betty? ”
“ Yes,” answered Peter.
It was diﬁicult to know how to begin, and to make
the queer, jumbled story sound credible. But when
Peter (only keeping back the fact that Betty had
sent him a letter) had got even so far in the narra-
tive as the veiled woman’s ﬁrst threats, Manners’s
shrewd face took on a frown of attentive gravity.
He listened without interruption until Peter came
to his one proof that the woman had not been lying
from start to ﬁnish —- the message supposed to have
come from Betty. The young man could not bring
himself to repeat to the girl’s father, that message,
but merely said, stammering a little, that it was some-
thing which no one else could have known except
through her.
“The woman read me out the telegram," said
Peter. “ She wouldn’t give it to me. But the
words must have come from Miss Manners.”
“ What did you do, then? ” asked Manners.
“I promised to throw up the whole business if
Miss Manners were handed over to you, safe and
sound, to-morrow.”
“ By Jovel " exclaimed the millionaire.
“ What else could I do? I couldn’t doubt after
that message that some unscrupulous brutcs had got
her in their power; and for nothing in the world
would I risk harm coming to her. The woman had


IVHEN THE LIGHT FAILED 223
me completely under her thumb, confound her! —
and she knew it.”
“ So you have given your word to stop playing
the detective? "
“ Yes; and to leave not only the Xenia but Gib-
raltar.”
“ All for Betty’s sake. Well, I suppose it was
the only thing to be done. Had you got on the
track of the mystery? Yet you had scarcely time for
that."
“ Nevertheless, I had found out some things, and
thought I saw my way toward ﬁnding out more.”
“ H’ml Since you’re giving up the job, there’s
no reason why you should mind telling me details, is
there — the reward being off? ”
“ It isn’t off yet, sir,” said Peter. “When I
parted from the woman after making my bargain, I
had twenty-four hours left me in which I was free
to work. It didn't occur to her, evidently, to make
any stipulation about so short an interval. Since
that time, though it isn't very long ago, I have made
several rather valuable discoveries. So valuable, in-
deed, that I’m not quite hopeless of ﬁnishing the
whole work to-morrow, being able to tell you all
you want to know, and—if the woman keeps her
half the bargain by returning Miss Manners to you
——- being also in a position to claim the reward.”
“ You mean the hundred thousand dollars,” said
Manners.


224 A SECRET OF THE SEA
“ That isn’t what I have been working for, you
may remember, if you recall our talk. It was for
the chance to win your daughter, if she were still
free, and still of the same mind.”
“A few days are hardly fair. I thought you
would be months at work.”
“There was no time-limit set. And no doubt a
long delay in getting at the secret would be annoy-
ing for you, sir.”
“No doubt. But it seems incredible that you
should have got at it so soon. I can’t believe it,
Knight. If you’re not boasting, at least you are de-
ceiving yourself.”
“ It remains to be seen.”
“ What! You’ll tell me nothing now?”
“I can’t, for the best of reasons. But I hope
they may have ceased to exist by to-morrow.”
“You have learned something about Betty Des-
mond? ”
“ That is one of the things I may have to tell you
after to-morrow.”
Peter’s thoughts travelled swiftly to the letters
and the two black, gold-padlocked books once more
hidden away in the secret cabinet. He longed now
to have a chance at them. Even if he had not a
right to keep what he had worked so hard to win,
he would not have told Manners at this time of his
latest discovery. To do so would be premature,
for, after all, there might be nothing concerning


226 A SECRET OF THE SEA
so long, and ﬁnd my daughter Betty at the same
time! ”
Manners took Peter by the arm, to hurry him to
the companion. All was dark on the yacht, save for
the usual riding light aloft. The two new men were
standing together near the bow, talking in low voices,
as Brown and his mate had talked last night. Peter
wondered, as he and Manners went below, whether
they had had any experiences resembling those of
their predecessors. The electric light on the Xenia
was generated by a petrol motor of a rather peculiar
make, and such a quantity of electricity had been
stored up that, with the short hours during which
lights were required, Peter had not found it neces-
sary to set the engine to work since he had been on
board. But now, when he attempted to switch on
the lights in the saloon, he got no result, and he
and Manners remained in darkness.
“The accumulators are exhausted, I expect,” said
Peter. “The men have got the lanterns, but I
know there are plenty of candles in the storeroom,
for I’ve seen them, and if you’ll wait here for a few
minutes, sir, I’ll fetch some.”
He groped his way along through the dark, and
it was impossible not to recall his odd experience of
the night before — the silky rustle and the feeling of
something slippery that moved from under his ﬁn-
gers. He had not mentioned this matter to Man-
ners, nor had be repeated the story told by the men.


WHEN THE LIGHT FAILED 227
There had been other things of far greater impor-
tance demanding all his attention.
Luckily, he had come this way so often that every
step was familiar, and after two or three minutes
of groping he had reached the storeroom door. He
knew exactly where the packing case stood, and was
avoiding it as he took the direction which would
lead him to the shelves, when a figure, blacker than
the darkness, sprang out of a corner and rushed
past him through the door.
Peter followed, but the ﬁgure eluded him, and
was almost instantly swallowed up in the gloom.
He tried the electric light switch in the larger gal-
ley, hoping that, after all, something had gone
wrong in the saloon, and the power was not ex-
hausted; but no light came, and he was obliged to
return to the storeroom and search until he found
the candles, as it would be futile to attempt a fur-
ther chase in the dark. He took half a dozen, which
he put in his pockets, lighting one with a wax vesta
from his own matchbox, and holding it up before
him as he went back to the saloon.
In the doorway he found Manners. “ Some-
thing ran past me in the dark. What was it? ” the
latter exclaimed, in a sharp, excited voice.
“I don’t know," said Peter. “ It was in the
storeroom. Which way did it go? "
“I can’t tell you,” returned Manners. “I only
know that it brushed past me; I saw it, black for an


WHEN THE LIGHT FAILED 229
or two at something inside, and then held out the
watch, open, for Peter to see the photograph of
Betty Desmond.
The light was dim and uncertain. The younger
man brought one of the candles nearer; he bent his
head over the watch, and then drew back with a cry
of incredulous astonishment.


CHAPTER XXIV
THE WOMAN OF THE PHOTOGRAPH
“ 0U recognize the photograph!” ejaculated
Manners. “Betty Desmond is the woman
who was on board this yacht? ”
“Let me see the picture again,” said Peter, in
a low, strained voice, putting out his hand for the
watch. “ I want to make sure. I—it seems al-
most too strange to be true, and yet —- and yet ”
His sentence broke off in the midst. He looked
closely at the photograph, and seemed to have for-
gotten everything else, until the other brought him
back to himself with an abrupt question.
“ Why too strange to be true? ” he asked, sharply_
“ Is there anything too strange to be true in this
queer world? ”
“Mr. Manners,” Peter said, slowly, “whether
this is a picture of the Betty Desmond you once loved
I can’t tell. But if that be true, Betty Desmond was
my mother.”
“ Your mother! Impossible! ”
The words rang out sharp and clear, with a note
of anger in them. And there were anger and in-
credulity in Manners’s eyes as well.
Peter Knight looked straight into them. “ Do

230


WOMAN OF THE PHOTOGRJPH 23!
you remember,” he began, “when I asked if you
might have been mistaken in thinking this a portrait
of a woman you had known in her girlhood, seven
and twenty years ago, you answered that it could not
be so; there was only one Betty Desmond in the
world? Well, now I tell you, Manners, that there
was only one woman in the world like my mother.
This is her picture; and, what is more, I am sure
now that this isn’t the ﬁrst time I’ve seen this pho-
tograph. I remember my mother showing it to
me. It is the only one I ever saw of her.”
Manners gazed at him almost stupidly, like a
man who wakes from a dream and cannot be sure
that he does not still dream.
“Your mother,” he repeated, in a half whisper.
“ Your mother— Betty Desmondl I can’t believe
it! Surely you would have known her name.”
“ I was only ﬁve years old when—I lost her,”
Peter said, sadly.
Suddenly Manners seemed to wake from his
dream.
“She died?” he stammered. “ Yes—I know.
You told me once that your mother died. But then
I could not guess that she Tell me everything
over again—all your history, Knight—all that
concerns her.”
In the wavering candle-light his face looked drawn
and pale. In ﬁve minutes he had aged twice as
many years.


WOMAN OF THE PHOTOGRAPH 233
comfort her, and she would cling to me, and lay
her beautiful golden head on my little childish shoul-
der, sobbing out that I was all she had in the world.
I used to feel, too, that there was a kind of blight
upon us—that I was different from other little
boys. We had always to keep moving on; we had
never a settled home. It was as if some one un-
seen and unknown hunted us mercilessly from place
to place; there was never any rest for long. Once
I remember asking why I hadn’t a father, as other
boys had, and I can see my mother’s face now, when
I put that question. She didn’t answer at ﬁrst, but
held me close in her arms, so that I could feel her
heart throbbing; and as I looked up at her to ﬁnd
out why she didn’t speak, I could see that she was
very pale, with trembling lips, and great eyes that
stared unseeingly and mournfully over my head. At
last she spoke, and told me that I had a father, just
as other little boys had; that I must always remember
that and ”
Peter’s voice broke so suddenly that Manners
started into alertness.
“And what?” he demanded, when the young
man’s pause began to seem unaccountably long.
“I would rather not ﬁnish what I was going to
say, Manners,” he replied, frankly. “In recalling
that day, and what my mother told me, something
came back to my recollection, which gave me a sur-
prise. I don’t quite see what it means yet, or of


234 A SECRET OF THE SEA
how much importance it may be; but if it does turn
out to be of importance, at all events it concerns my-
self alone for the present. Honestly, I do not think
it would interest you at the moment. It is enough
to say that my mother reassured me, tenderly as
always, telling me that my father was not one to be
ashamed of, rather the reverse, but that it might
be I would never see him, and asking if I could not be
satisﬁed and happy alone with her. Of course, I
kissed her, and answered that I was both; and I
never referred to the subject again. But, some-
times, when I saw her looking pale and sad, and very
ill, I was afraid that she was thinking of it, and it
seemed as if my heart must break.
“ Wherevcr we went, I used always to have a lit-
tle bed in her room, and one day I woke up and ran
to kiss her good morning as usual, but she did not
open her eyes and smile as she always had before.
She lay still, and her hand, when I took it, was icy
cold, and very heavy to lift. I tried again and
again to wake her, and when she did not answer or
move, but lay quite silent, with a far-off strange smile
on her lips, I rushed out of the room, and called
for help. People came— for it was in a hotel—
and a doctor was sent for, and in the excitement no
one remembered about me. I was allowed to stand
by and hear all that went on. The doctor said she
had died of heart disease, and that she must have
had it for a long time, and have been exceedingly


WOMAN OF THE PHOTOGRAPH 235
brave to keep up as she had. I knew nothing about
death, and even when I had listened to all this, I
could not understand that she would never take me
in her arms or speak to me again. I went to her
and called her name. Then somebody explained the
truth to me — not very sympathetically, though they
meant well enough no doubt. I think I must have
fainted, for I don’t remember anything more, except
seeming to wake up after a sleep that hadn’t really
been a sleep, and asking for my mother. A servant
of the hotel was with me—a cross overworked
woman. She told me that my mother had been put
in a cofﬁn and buried down under the ground; that
I should never see her again. And I was angry, for
I thought she was lying, and had stolen me from
my mother. I was a strong, healthy little chap of
ﬁve years old, and I attacked the woman ﬁercely.
The noise she made brought people to the room,
among others the wife of the hotel proprietor—-
a Swiss woman. She had never liked me, and seizing
me by the shoulders with her sharp ﬁngers, she told
me that I was a little pauper, and if I did not be-
have myself I should be sent to prison, instead of
to a nice asylum, where kind sisters of charity looked
after children who didn’t belong to any one. I was
a wicked little boy, and my mother had died owing
her a great deal of money. If I had any pride, I
would want to be good, and learn how to work, and
pay her back by-and-by.


236 A SECRET OF THE SEA
“In the midst of this, an old lady whom I had
passed sometimes on the stairs and in the corridors,
when my mother and I had been out together, came
to the door and listened. She asked a great many
questions and — to cut a long story short — it ended
in her adopting me. When I realized that I should
really never see my mother again, nothing mattered
much, and I was willing to go with the Old lady, who
—as I have told you before—was an English-
woman, named Page. She was unmarried, and did
not want me to take her name. I remember very
well how she told me that I was to be called
‘ Knight,’ because that was a good name for a boy to
live up to. If I were always good, and honourable,
and brave, I could earn a right to that name, so that
it would really in time, be my very own, as no other
name could ever be.
“Miss Page wasn’t rich, and she was eccentric,
but very good. I think she took me away from
that second-rate hotel in Naples, and saved me from
becoming a wretched foundling, more because she
was sorry for me than because she really loved me.
She was always kind, but never aﬂectionate. She
sent me to school in England. When I was old
enough I went to Eton; afterward to Oxford.
While I was there still, she died. My education,
which had been of the best, was her only legacy to
me. I believe she had even stinted herself that I
might have it. As a boy I scarcely realized the


WOMAN OF THE PHOTOGRAPH 237
full extent of my obligation to her. But now I
understand how immense it is. The rest of my story
you know, Manners; and much of this you have
known before in outline; but never as I have told it
to you to-night.”
“Who was the man who took her from me?”
Manners asked, speaking more to himself than to
Knight. “ Was it the man who kept her picture in
his watch through all these years? ”
Peter did not answer, for his thoughts had gone
back again to the day, so long ago, when he had
asked his mother the question that had made her
sad. In his mind he was ﬁnishing the sentence which
a little while ago he had broken short in telling his
story to Manners. “Always remember that you
have a father of whom there is no need to be
ashamed,” his mother had said. “ Remember that,
and the motto of his family, which is yours too:
‘ My honour is my life!’ Terrible things happen
when those who should remember it, forget.”
She had made him repeat the words, so that he
knew them by heart but they had never spoken again
of the absent father, nor of the motto which he had
been bidden to remember. From that day; one and
twenty years ago, until the day when he had found
it engraved on the seal ring in the deserted states
room of the derelict Xenia, he had never seen the
motto, or heard it quoted; therefore, when he had.
read the words on the ring, they had merely struck


WOMAN OF THE PHOTOGRAPH 239
conceit. I was always so sure that she cared for
me -— that she must have been spirited away against
her will, improbable as it seemed to the detectives I
employed, and to everyone who knew, except my-
self. Now it turns out to have been an every-day
sort of elopement. As for the dead woman, her
aunt whom we found sitting in her chair when we
broke into the Desmonds’ ﬂat, no doubt her sudden
end could be accounted for in an ordinary way
enough, if we had only been content with the ordi-
nary. Well, I’m not sorry that I showed you the
photograph. Ignorance isn’t bliss, to my idea; and
though my poor old romance has fallen into dust, it
is better to know the truth.”
“Whatever the real truth may be,” said Peter
hotly, “ I would stake my life that my mother was
not to blame.”
“ Perhaps not, exceptfor promising to marry one
man and loving another so well, if not so wisely, that
at the last moment she couldn’t keep her word.
Many women do such things, and remain on good
terms with their own conscience. As for my feel-
ings toward you, now that I have been enlightened,
I don’t quite understand them myself, yet. I don’t
know whether I like you better, or hate you for be-
ing the son of Betty Desmond and the man who stole
her away from me on the day that should have seen
her my wife, though I know well enough what I
should feel toward him if we could meet. Per-


240 A SECRET OF THE SEA
haps I shall understand myself better, later on.
And, meanwhile, I’ll go back to Tangier to see
whether your veiled woman keeps her word more
faithfully than the majority of her sex.”
“ You haven’t told me any of the details of Miss
Manners’s disappearance,” said Peter, hastily.
“ Won’t you ——-”
“ Some other time—some other time,” cut in
Manners. “ I’m in no mood for explanations now.
You shall hear all that later, however things turn
out. I want to be off now. The instant I have
news of my daughter I will wire. Or if the ap-
pointed time passes without news, I will let you
know, just the same.”
The millionaire was on his feet, his manner crisp
and business-like.
Peter rose also. The watch with his mother’s
portrait, which Manners had given him to look at,
was still in his hand. He wished to keep it, yet
was half inclined to return it to Manners. Still
after the last bitter words, he could not offer to do
so, and he knew that the elder man had not for-
gotten, for he had seen him throw a quick glance at
the watch.
On second thoughts, Peter kept the watch; and he
made no move to shake hands. Manners was go-
ing; Peter was about to follow, courteously, and was
in the act of taking up one of the candles from the
table, when the millionaire turned abruptly—


244 A SECRET OF THE SEA
for help by the love he had pledged her. As a
background for her white loveliness, the black ﬁg-
ure which had sprung past him in the dark store-
room crouched still in his fancy. Everywhere was
doubt and mystery; he was steeped in it, choking in
it, straining his eyes for light and his lungs for pure
aIr.
Nothing could be done with the electric lighting of
the yacht until next day. Peter took candles with
him to the stateroom and locked the door, for if the
new men were bent on playing tricks it was as well
to make sure of not being spied upon. Then, when
he was secure from intrusion, he pressed the spring
in the frame of the mirror and opened the cabinet.
The crimson-lined shelves were empty! The three
packets of letters and the two little black-bound
volumes were gone!
For a long moment Peter stared into the secret
cabinet in blank, unbelieving amazement. The
thing seemed incredible. He caught up one of the
candlesticks and passed the light carefully over the
shelves. Nothing was there save a bit of gold cord,
such as had tied the bundles of letters. Some one
besides himself had discovered the hiding-place, and
had taken the contents away.
When Peter had recovered from his ﬁrst aston-
ishment, he began to ask himself how this could have
happened. His suspicions hovered round the two
men who had come on board to-day. The question


A CRY IN THE DARKNESS 245
was, how could they, or any one else, have hit upon
the secret of the cabinet? He unlocked the door,
and, closing it again when he was on the other side,
bent down and peeped through the keyhole. To his
chagrin he was able to see the open cabinet. If any
one had been spying when he discovered the spring
in the mirror frame and took out the books and let-
ters, everything that he had done could have been
seen. It would have been simple afterward for the
watcher to return when the stateroom was empty
and remove the things, which he had been stupidly
conﬁdent enough to put back in their old place when
he hurriedly left the room. What a fool he had
been not to draw the curtain which hung inside the
stateroom door! No doubt when the owner had
busied himself with this cabinet, designed especially
to hide his most private possessions he had taken
that precaution, or the books and letters would have
disappeared with all the other paper-s on board the
Xenia. What a fool he had been not to think of it,
and what a fool not to stow all the documents in his
pockets when he ran up on deck to get news of
Betty! If he had only done that he would not now
be anathematizing himself as a failure on the very
threshold of success. He could picture the spy at
the keyhole, darting away into the darkness at the
sound of the key turning in the lock. This, of
course, was the explanation of the ﬁgure in the store-
room. The spy had hidden there, thinking it the


248 A SECRET OF THE SEA
of his stolen goods by means of confederates out-
side, he resolved to watch until morning. Then, at
all events, the letters and the two little books (which
now seemed more important than anything else, ex-
cept Betty Manners’s safety) would not have a
chance to be spirited oﬂ the yacht. He went below,
as if to go to bed, but slipped up again, with a great-
coat over his arm. Quietly he got into one of the
boats hanging in the davits, rolled up his coat for a
pillow, and made himself as comfortable as he could.
If anything happened on his side of the deck, he
could see and hear without being seen.
So the night wore on. It was warm, though some-
what windy, with threatening rain that did not fall.
Sometimes, at ﬁrst, Peter heard the men talking, un-
conscious of his presence; at last one went below
to turn in, while the other remained on watch.
Then silence fell upon the Xenia. There was no
sound save the wind and the lapping of the water
against the yacht’s hull as she lay at anchor.
It was the “ dark hour before the dawn,” when
suddenly Peter became aware of a small boat be-
ing cautiously rowed alongside the derelict. She
came underneath, and lay to, as if waiting; and
Peter was quietly alert, waiting also. He expected
to see the man on watch either attempt to go off in
the boat or else to send something away; and Peter
did not intend that he should do either. But the
man, who had a short time ago been pacing up and


A CRY IN THE DARKNESS 249
down the deck, was now standing in the bow, and
was apparently ignorant of the boat’s approach.
Peter was only waiting for him to turn, as a signal to
spring out of the boat and surprise him, so to speak,
red-handed, when suddenly the night-silence was
broken by a scream —— a scream so terrible, so long-
drawn and thrilling with death agony, that Peter’s
blood chilled in his veins. Something was running
along the deck. He looked over the side of the boat
and saw a strange black shape struggling in the
grasp of another shape, small and gray as a ghost,
with a head hidden in a hood, and ﬂowing draperies
that ﬂapped in the wind like a bat’s wings. Even as
he looked the struggling forms ﬂed out of sight.
He leaped from the hanging boat to the deck, and
they were gone, but he followed. The man on
watch had come running from the bow, and in the
dark, and the confusion of his haste he fell against
Peter and grappled with him, refusing to let go un-
til his slow understanding had grasped the fact that
he was making a mistake. Peter threw him off in
self-defence, then helped him to his feet again, and
knowing now who it was he had grasped, the man
begged pardon, still quivering with the horror of
that scream and the still deeper horror of the dead
silence which had followed. Peter took up the in-
terrupted search, but came to an abrupt stop in
front of the great broken cage.


BY WHOSE HAND? 251
instant when in an impulse of anger he had torn
away her disguise. Now she was dead; and dead in
a way as unaccountable as her presence here in the
night.
“Look at this, sir,” one of the men was say-
ing, unsteadily holding the lantern low and point-
ing to some extraordinary marks on the woman’s
uncovered throat. On each side, under the car,
was one deep, purple dent; under the chin were more
of the same kind, mingled together confusedly; and
at the nape of the neck was a wound like a bite.
“ It’s a clear case of murder. But who is the
woman? How did she come here? and who can
have killed her? ”
“ It’s enough to make one believe in the ghost,
after all,” said the other. “Good heavensl sir,
Brown was right. This yacht has a curse upon it.
It’s no place for Christian men or women.”
Peter did not speak at once. His hand was on
the woman’s heart. It had ceased to beat. There
was no doubt that she was dead. A great horror
was upon him. It seemed that there were things in
heaven and earth undreamed of in his philosophy.
At ﬁrst he thought only of the woman, of the mys-
tery of her presence and of her awful death; then
his mind sprang to Betty Manners, and he realized
with a cold stab of despair that, with this woman
dead, the clue to the girl’s hiding place was lost,
and the whole situation changed.


252 A SECRET OF THE SEA
Nerved to desperation by the idea that the bridge
by which Betty should have been reached was broken,
Peter began rapidly to review the events of the past
few hours, attempting to put them all together like
the 'pieces of an elaborate pattern of mosaic.
In the morning of the day now past, this woman
had risked her liberty by coming on board the Xenia
with him. Something which she wished to know
she had learned; then had begun a game of wits,
and she had won. He had let her go, after threat-
ening to keep her until she confessed things of which
she pretended ignorance; he had, in the end, prom-
ised practically all she wanted, and the kidnapping
of Betty Manners had obtained the results for which
it had been planned. Evidently the woman had had
a strong motive for coming on board a second time,
and after her ﬁrst experience with him, had nat-
urally wished to do so without his knowledge, lest
she should be detained against her will, or prevented
from accomplishing her object, whatever that might
have been. Once on board, however, her presence,
in hiding, could account for a good deal; for the
black ﬁgure that had bounded out of the storeroom,
for Manners’s experience, and for the theft of the
books and letters from the cabinet. But Peter did
not see yet how she had contrived to return secretly
to the Xenia, unless she had a confederate in one
of the men. Suddenly, however, he remembered


BY WHOSE HAND? 253
the boat which had come out with the messenger who
brought his telegram from Naples. He recalled
hearing one of the men say that he fancied he saw a
third ﬁgure, in black, crouching down in the boat
when it ﬁrst came alongside, but that he must have
been mistaken for no such ﬁgure was there when
the boat went away. Now he reminded the men of
this little incident, and reluctantly, but honestly, they
admitted that it would have been possible for a per-
son to come stealthily on board while they were un-
suspectingly talking to the messenger. Afterward,
it would have been comparatively easy for such a
person to hide.
Matters now began to shape themselves rather
more deﬁnitely in Peter’s head. He saw how the
woman had planned her second visit, with her com-
plete change of dress, and he guessed that the boat
which he had seen so cautiously approaching the
Xenia not long ago, had been engaged to take her
back to shore, while it was still dark, and in time to
catch the early departing vessel for Tangier. Her
death gave him one advantage; there was hope that
if she had stolen the things from the mirror cabinet,
they were concealed somewhere about her person,
and he might be able to reclaim them. The only
way to do this, however, would be to do it secretly,
unseen by the two men; for this strange death would
entail an inquest, and he would be offending against


254 A SECRET OF THE SEA
the law if he removed anything from the body, even
though the thing he took away were more his than
the dead woman’s.
All these thoughts swept through his brain like
a whirlwind, snatching away old impressions. Not
ﬁve minutes had gone since ﬁrst, with his hand on
the woman’s breast, he had made sure that her heart
had ceased to beat; but already he was satisﬁed that
the mystery of her presence on board the Xenia and
other puzzling happenings were explained. Yet this
greatest mystery of all was still unsolved, and
seemed unsolvable. How and by whom had the
woman been murdered?
“ Exactly what did you see after that scream? ”
he asked of the man who had been standing in the
bow.
“Why I hardly know, sir,” stammered the other.
“ I saw a black ﬁgure, running fast, with arms
stretched out, and I thought there was another,
very small, all in gray. It looked as if the two
were struggling together, and the little gray ﬁg-
ure, that was just a queer, ghostly glimmer in the
darkness, sprang up on the other’s back. That was
the last I saw, sir. Then I stumbled against you,
not knowing who it was for a minute, and I suppose
it must have been in that minute that the gray thing
got away. Yet I heard no splash, as of any one
jumping overboard into the water. Whatever it is,
it must be hiding still on board.”


258 A SECRET OF THE SEA
dark water to the girl he loved, a voice within him
prophesied that he would leave his search even in
the hour of success, and give up all his hopes for the
future, because of her call to him for help.


THE SECRET PLACE 261
out saying anything of his intentions to the men,
went below to search once more on his own account.
He was in possession of one fact which they did
not know, and meant to be guided by it in his actions,
though it might have slipped his mind at this mo-
ment, had it not been for the story they had brought
to him about the disordered stateroom. It was
there that he would begin the search; for it was
there that, twenty-four hours ago, he had met with
certain strange experiences. Then he had been
forced to give up his quest in sheer despair after
many efforts and many failures. But that was be-
fore he had found the mirror cabinet in the adjoining
stateroom; this one unexpected discovery encour-
aged him to persevere in his hunt for others. Be-
sides, he had no doubt now that, if he only sought in
the right way and —— at last —- in the right place, his
search would be rewarded. Until the murtler, he
had said to himself that, after all, there was nothing
to ﬁnd; now he knew that there was something. He
thought of his vivid impression of a malevolent pres-
ence in the wardrobe, though he could ﬁnd nothing
more formidable than a number of charming dresses.
He thought of the electric shock which had run
through his hand and up to his elbow; he thought
of the spilled scent, the theft of the rings, and of
the tinned fruit which had disappeared from the
storeroom. He imagined the murdered woman
stealing into the stateroom and opening the door


THE SECRET PLACE 263
help to a couple of chaps who have no stomach for
such spirits. Better to pen the wretch in, with the
door shut upon us both, or agile and stealthy-footed
as he seems, he may skip past me and escape as he
has escaped before—or throw himself into the
sea.”
Peter closed the door of the stateroom, and his
heart was like a clock that ticked out the seconds.
A faint gray light, dim as that which shone for him
on the mystery of the derelict, came ﬁltering through
the port-hole. Herald of day as it was, it did not
lift from Peter Knight’s mind the sense of oppres-
sion which hung heavy in the scented air.
The men had left the room as they found it. The
wardrobe door stood wide open, and two or three
dresses of delicate tint and material had been ﬂung
out on the floor. The dim light of dawn struck out
a gleam here and there on a sequin, or bit of
diamante' embroidery. The incongruous effect of
these disordered daintinesses strewn over the scene of
a tragedy appealed to Peter oddly. It seemed like
an insult to vanished loveliness that they should be
allowed to lie there, perhaps to be trampled under-
foot by him —- and the evil thing whose presence his
nerves felt. He stooped and picked them up awk-
wardly. As he did so, something dropped from
among the soft folds of lace and chiffon and satin,
and fell back on the ﬂoor again. It was a little
machine for electrical massage, such as Peter had


26ar A SECRET OF THE SEA
sometimes seen in newspaper advertisements. He
laid the poor, pretty gowns on the bed, and took the
thing up thoughtfully.
“ This could have given me that shock I got last
night,” he said to himself, “supposing it had been
properly prepared, and some one had it hidden in
the wardrobe. If there were a shelf that I hadn’t
noticed, perhaps —-”
He left his sentence unﬁnished and went to the
wardrobe. The removal of the three or four
dresses had left a clear space. There was no shelf,
but, peering into the dusk, he saw that the top piece
or roof of the wardrobe, into which many large brass
hooks for holding a woman’s clothing were screwed,
did not extend from the front all the way to the back
wall, as he had naturally supposed. When the
roomy receptacle was full of lltu dresses, all sus-
pended from this roof of perfumed cedar-wood, the
opening had not been noticeable, and last night, in
his search, Peter had merely ascertained that nothing
was hidden between the hanging garments and the
walls, at back or sides. It had not occurred to him
to examine the roof of the wardrobe, which was very
deep and commodious, having a depth of perhaps
thirty inches.
Such an open space over the top of the wardrobe
had very possibly been arranged by the designer of
the Xenia for purposes of ventilation and presum-
ably it was continuous, connecting with the wardrobe


266 A SECRET OF THE SEA
siege. He wanted to know if some one were really
hiding over the wardrobe, and who and what? that
some one was. And he wanted to know now, with-
out delay.
Suddenly Peter remembered that while he stood
here, calculating the chances of a capture, the quarry
might be escaping through the adjoining stateroom.
The door of communication between the two cabins
was merely latched; Peter opened it, and passing
through into the stateroom with the mirror cabinet,
be locked the outside door and put the key in his
pocket. Now, unless there were some means of exit
which he had not counted upon, he might hope that
he had the quarry trapped.
Nevertheless, the advantage of the curious situa-
tion was largely on the other side. If a desperate
“person were actually hiding there in the secret place
above the cedar-lined wardrobe, he would have to
be forced out or frightened out; and it was not likely
after all he had endured, all he had already done in
the hope of terrorizing the usurpers on the Xenia
into abandoning her, that he would submit without
a struggle to be taken prisoner.
Peter deliberately removed everything from the
wardrobe piling the pink and white bed with pretty
dresses. Then he went in, bending his head a little,
for he had an inch or two over six feet, and could
not stand upright under the thick-set ranks of brass
hooks, which were empty now. He peered curiously


THE SECRET PLACE 267
up into the dark space behind the half-roof of cedar,
but could see nothing. Then he put up his hand and
arm, feeling along the shelf. Instantly he was
caught round the wrist with a grasp like iron. A
hot panting breath was on his hand as two rows of
teeth seized upon it and bit it to the bone.


270 A SECRET OF THE SEA
her voice trembling, though she tried to keep it
bravely steady. “ A wicked and cruel trick has been
played upon me. But, I assure you, every one con-
cerned in it will have cause for regret when once my
father knows the story.”
The young man smiled, and showed very hand-
some white teeth. He also twisted his moustache,
which was small, black, and curled up in foreign
military fashion. He was rather a ﬁne representa-
tive of a certain type, and evidently he was fully
awake to all his attractions.
“ If you were a woman of the world, signorina,”
he said, “ you would reﬂect that threats are seldom
politic — never polite. But you are something much
more charming— a fresh and beautiful young girl;
and though you may be injudicious, I assure you a
man of my temperament does not bear malice
toward a woman of your charm. Any wish of
yours, except to leave our house, I shall have great
pleasure in granting.”
Betty was tempted to retort: “ Then take your-
self out of my sight,” but to do so would be, accord-
ing to the vulgar proverb, “ cutting off her nose to
spite her own face.” Perhaps, she thought, if she
controlled her anger, and schooled herself to civility
toward this impertinent young man, who spoke Eng-
lish so well, and betrayed his nationality by calling
her “ signorina,” she might at least obtain some in-


THE KNIGHT COUNTS 271
formation from him, possibly even induce him to let
her go.
“If you are willing to do me a favour, then,”
she said, “ tell me why I was brought to this house,
and whose it is? ”
“ We will talk about that, if you like,” the man
replied. “ But you have complained of our hospi-
tality. At least, signorina, we do not mean to starve
you. Here is our good Elena waiting with English
tea, and cakes for which she is famous. Will you
invite me to tea with you? When you are refreshed,
you will be in a better mood for conversation.”
As he spoke, he looked at the girl always with his
large, bright insolent eyes, and she decided that, even
for the sake of such information as he might be will-
ing to give, she could not and would not, calmly sub-
mit to endure his society.
The Italian woman had set down her tray on a
small folding stand which she had brought into the
room under her arm. It was rather an attractive-
looking tray, covered with a ﬁne specimen of red-and-
blue Moorish embroidery on delicate linen. The
teapot was silver, with a tiny hanging strainer; the
two cups were of thin, old china, and there was a
plate piled with crisp rolled brown cakes. Betty had
been too excited to eat her luncheon, and she was be-
ginning to be hungry; but she turned her back upon
these preparations for her refreshment.


272 A SECRET OF THE SEA
“ I don’t care for tea, thank you,” she said. “ I
am quite ill from anxiety. All I want is to be al-
lowed to go back to my father. Oh, do let me go.
If I am being kept here for the sake of money he
will give it to you.”
“It is not for the sake of money,” the man an-
swered; then turning to the servant, he spoke to her
in Italian.
She bowed, and went to the door, leaving the tea-
tray on the little inlaid ebony stand. With a quick
impulse, Betty started forward to follow, but the
young man prevented her by intervening once more.
He was tall, with an appearance of strength, and
Betty realized that resistance would be useless and
undigniﬁed. If it came to a struggle, she would be
like a reed in his hands.
“What is the motive, then? ” she inquired, her
eyes ﬁxed wistfully on the curtain over the door, he-
hind which the woman had just disappeared.
“ I suppose you would not believe me, signorina,"
said the man, with another of his glittering smiles,
“ if I told you that it was entirely for the delight of
your society? ”
“ No, I should not,” exclaimed the girl, sharply.
“ Well then, it would be useless for me to swear
that in the beginning it was so. Now, however, since
I have seen you, I can truly say that, were there no
other reason, such a one would be sufﬁcient."
“ Is it true that you and your mother even know


THE KNIGHT COUNTS 27 5
“ What an idiot I must have been! ” ejaculated
the girl, quivering with indignant shame.
“ Pray, do not think poorly of yourself. I have
never seen a human being who could not be outwitted
by my mother; even my father, and he, too, is great
—very great. I am proud of my parents. Did
you not admire the fortune teller’s topaz, signorina,
and the jewels of the governor’s widow which she
offered for sale at such a low price? ”
Betty did not answer, save by a sigh which was al-
most a sob of anger.
- “ The topaz is an heirloom of our family,” the
young man went calmly on, his eyes never straying
from the girl’s lovely ﬂushed face. “It bears the
motto of our family— that is, of the elder branch;
but as it is an inconvenient motto, I have sometimes
been glad that it was not quite necessary for us to
live up to it. As for the jewels, they were my
mother’s own; she needed an excuse to get on board
your yacht, and the English Lady Haldon played
into her hands without guessing. ‘ One must sacri-
ﬁce something in a great cause,’ my mother said.
And ours is a great cause, signorina — a cause for
which we have sacriﬁced much, and may have to
sacriﬁce still more. But in the end there can now be
no doubt of our reward. It is to serve that cause
that you have been brought into this house, in which,
for a certain purpose, we have lived now for a month
— as long and dull a month as I ever passed. There


276 A SECRET OF THE SEA
is no vulgar question of ransom, signorina. You
were a pawn, as my mother said, in a great game of
chess. Now, however, that I have seen you the
situation is changed. You are no longer a pawn;
if you know chess, you know that it is possible for a
pawn, by crossing into the enemy’s territory and
reaching a certain position, to become a queen.
That is what has happened now to you. I may call
myself a knight in the game where my father and
mother have played the great parts. But even a
knight counts for something; and it is by crossing his
path that you take your place as queen.”
“I don’t understand you,” exclaimed Betty.
“ I will make you understand,” he answered.


CHAPTER XXIX
BEHIND THE HIGH WHITE WALLS
ANNERS had left Lord Umberleigh and
Lady Haldon at the hotel in Tangier from
which Betty had disappeared. \Vhen he had come
steaming back from Gibraltar at the Naiad’s best
speed, he landed at once, and went immediately to
join his friends, early as it was in the morning of the
day after his ﬂying visit to the Xenia. His ﬁrst
question was:
“ Is there any news of Betty? "
There was nothing which might be called news,
except that the police were of opinion that the girl
must have been hurried away into the interior of
the country, where her kidnappers might think them-
selves safe. Strange things happened sometimes in
the country behind Tangier—the country among
the hills, where the law was a mere word, not under-
stood to have much meaning, except for cities.
Lord Umberleigh had learned to know this during
his winter in Tangier, and he thought that prob-
ably Manners knew it also, but they did not speak
to one another of any vague fears which lurked in
the background of their minds. Each tried to en-
courage the other; and Manners really had some-
377


BEHIND THE HIGH WALLS 283
me? I don’t know exactly what you propose to
do, but as for me, I intend using one of those horses
I’ve got hold of this morning—using him for all
he’s worth. Everything’s arranged for the party
to start, in case we had no news, by three o’clock.
We can go a little earlier now that we’ve heard from
Gib.”
“ You don’t mind not being on the spot, then, when
Knight arrives? ”
“ No. He practically says that he has no news
of Betty and hopes that I have. Therefore, the
other things which he may have to tell me can
wait.”
Umberleigh looked rather more cheerful on hear-
ing that Peter Knight was not to be considered. As
a rule, he was neither a bad-hearted nor a jealous
fellow, but he wanted very much to be the only man
of importance in this affair, after Manners. He
wanted, above all, to be the man who should ﬁnd
Betty Manners and give her back to her father. If
he could do that, he believed that her future would
belong to him.
It was precisely forty-eight hours since the party
had driven away from the hotel for an afternoon
of pleasure, leaving Betty behind. Nothing had
been heard of her since, save what Knight had been
able to tell Manners and the vague news which had
come in from the country concerning a white woman
who had been seen riding with an escort of two men-


BEHIND THE HIGH WALLS 285
the young American lady who had disappeared.
Then the gentleman had told him that he should re-
ceive that sum and more, for keeping anything that
he might remember, to himself. This was the day,
and this the hour, at which he was to call at the villa
on the hill to be paid. Now he would have some-
thing to tell his employer; and the gentleman would
laugh, as he had laughed, because of that little ex-
pedition which was riding out into the hills.
Mahrez climbed the hill, and rang at the gate
of the villa. As he stood waiting for the gate to be
opened, he heard a sound from within the high
white walls. “ They should be careful,” he said to
himself, “ or there will be suspicions over here in this
respectable quarter." But he showed his teeth
again, for Mahrez hated white American faces; and
the sound he had heard had been a girl’s voice raised
in pain or fear.


CHAPTER XXX
THE FIGHT IN THE STATEROOM
HE two men on the Xenia were strangely sub-
dued in manner, and their faces were pale
under their tan, as they looked questioningly into
each other’s eyes in that gray dawn after the mur-
der on the derelict. Never, perhaps, had they been
gladder to see daylight; and they felt a singular
need of one another’s society, which compelled them
to keep together, close together.
When they had searched the yacht vainly for
traces of the murderer and reported their failure to
Knight, it seemed to the pair, on consultation, that
it was really only want of food which gave them
“ that qualmish jumpy feeling, as if there was some-
thing ready to pounce on a chap from behind.”
They decided that a cup of tea and a little food
would “put them all right,“ and no doubt Mr.
Knight would be glad of the same. Talking to-
gether in whispers, as if they feared to disturb a
light sleeper, they proceeded to boil water for the
tea, and cut, with one of their own big pocket-knives,
huge slices from a long loaf of bread.
286


THE FIGHT IN THE STdTEROOM 287
“ What do you really think of this business?”
asked one man of the other. “ Do you believe that
there’s a living human being hid somewhere on
board this yacht, playing the ghost, and murdering
any one who interferes with him? ”
“No,” said his mate, “I can’t believe it. If
there was anybody we should have found him. A
cat couldn’t have hid from us. You know that as
well as I do. I ain’t superstitious, I’ve been used to
laughing at tales of ghosts and such-like, but I’m
hanged if I’ll laugh after we get off this accursed
derelict, if we ever do. For it is accursed. There’s
no other way round. I suppose that woman was a
thief, and we shall get into hot water for letting
her sneak on board, behind our backs, but what I
say is, we’re not responsible for anything that goes
on here. The yacht’s bewitched or worse. It was
all well enough chaﬁing poor old Brown about his
ghost; but if we don’t look out, that same ghost will
do for one of us the same way it did for that thief,
who deserved what she got, while we shouldn’t.”
The other man shuddered. “ It’s hard to say
that of any woman,” he answered. “ It was an.
awful way to die. I sha’n’t forget those marks on
her throat, in a hurry, or ”
“ What was that? ” broke in his mate, in a sharp
whisper.
The two stood rigid, shocked into silence, every
nerve strained to listen. Still the sound which had


THE FIGHT IN THE STATEROOJVI 289
cabin! ” cried the other. “Lord, they're ﬁghting
against the door! ”
“There’s a door between the two staterooms,”
said the ﬁrst. “Try if you can get in; either one
will do. They’re back and forth, back and forth.
For the love of mercy, what's going on in there?”
“We can’t get in; the door’s locked on the in-
side,” panted the other. “ So is this next one. Mr.
Knight has locked himself in with that chattering
horror, whatever it is. We’ve got to break the
door down. Go fetch a big chair from the saloon.
That’s the best thing, and we’ll smash it in. I’ll
stop here to be ready to help, in case Mr. Knight
unlocks the door and comes out.”
As his mate bounded off to obey; the man shouted
Peter’s name: “ Mr. Knight — Mr. Knight! For
God’s sake, sir, let us know that you’re not being
killed!” He called loudly, but the shrill, continu-
ous chattering on the other side of the door drowned
his words, and for answer came another thud against
the wooden panels, which made him involuntarily
start back.
By this time the other man had returned with the
chair. Without a word, he lifted it high above his
head and brought it crashing down on the door.
The wood cracked, but did not break. Again he
raised the chair and swung it down with another
smashing blow. The two hind legs of carved teak
wood burst through the panels with a loud splinter-


THE FIGHT IN THE STATEROOM 291
eating one foot, he caught the other, and striving to
save himself from a fall by snatching at the door
frame, he pitched forward on his face into the next
stateroom. As he fell he had one glimpse of a
thing so horrible that, even in his confusion he told
himself that his eyes had played him false. The
chatteringrose to a savage shriek and a gray shape
that had been struggling in deadly combat with Peter
Knight, wrenched itself free from his grasp, to bound
upon the new enemy. Quick as light Peter was upon
it again from behind, one of his hands streaming
blood. With a thick silk coverlet, which he snatched
from the bed in passing, he mufﬂed the hideous head,
and, springing over the body of his fallen mate, who
lay helpless, the man who came second pounced on
the claw-like hands that tore at the silk.
“ Make hastel ” he stuttered to his friend, who
scrambled up, half dazed. “I can’t hold on long.
Take a sheet — anything that’ll go round the wrists.
It’s got the strength of two men. Great Heaven!
I’ve lost it! ”
With a twist the gray shape was free, save that its
head was still muffled in the crimson silk coverlet,
Peter Knight holding it from behind. But writh-
ing round, it caught Peter round the body with two
disproportionately long arms. So sudden was the
movement that Peter, weakened from loss of blood,
was borne down to his knees while the gray shape
crouched over him shaking its head to get rid of


THE FIGHT IN THE STATEROONI 293
to arrive there with least delay. The young man
was looking ghastly white, more like a patient for
some doctor than a traveller, and his right arm was
in a sling, his hand wrapped in bandages. Never-
theless he told the captain of the port, who con-
gratulated him very warmly on certain perform-
ances, that he had never felt better in his life.
Since there was no regular boat for Tangier that
day, he was trying to make arrangements for ob-
taining the use of a private yacht, whose owner had
gone away, leaving it in charge of the captain and
crew, when he was told that a Mr. Fox-Smith was
inquiring for him. Peter had known a man named
Fox-Smith in Oxford days, and had not seen him
since—a rich vulgarian, but good-natured; and
when Knight heard that the Mr. Fox-Smith, who
was now in Gibraltar, had arrived the day before
on his own steam yacht, he began to be as anxious
to meet his old acquaintance as the old acquaintance
apparently was to meet him. They did meet, at last,
under the auspices of the captain of the port, and
it appeared that Fox-Smith had stopped overnight
solely in the hope of seeing Peter, of whose pres-
ence on board the Xenia he had heard as a matter
of gossip, too late to obtain sight of him before
morning.
Fox-Smith was on his way to Lisbon, and was
delighted to take Peter to Tangier, especially when
he had been given a few sketchy outlines of the


294 A SECRET OF THE SEA
X enia’s strange story. It was immediately after
this arrangement was satisfactorily made, that
Peter wired to Manners.
It was evening when he arrived at Tangier. He
got rid of Fox-Smith and went straight to the hotel
where he had been told to address Manners, only to
ﬁnd him absent, with Lord Umberleigh. He then
inquired for Lady Haldon, whom he had never seen,
and was shown into her sitting-room, but found her
frigid, and inclined to be monosyllabic. The mys-
tery of the Xenia was nothing to her, and she had a
hazy idea that somehow Betty Manners’s disappear-
ance and the general disagreeable change in people
and plans were at least partly due to the inﬂuence of
Manners’s ex-secretary. She could not help think-
ing that he was good to look upon, and that the
sling in which he wore his arm made him rather in-
teresting; nevertheless she did not approve of Mr.
Knight, and showed it. He told her nothing, and
was told nothing by her in return, save that Betty
had not returned, and that there was no deﬁnite
news of her. Bitterly disappointed at not ﬁnding
Manners, Peter left the hotel, and went down into
the town.
“ He might at least have left some word for me,
as he got my wire and knew I was coming,” the
young man said to himself. “ I suppose if the truth
were allowed to come out, Manners and Lord Um-
berleigh think they’ve got hold of a clue, and have


THE FIGHT IN THE STATEROOM 295
gone off to follow it up. But it’s my place to ﬁnd
my darling girl, not Umberleigh’s; not even her
father’s. Now, the whole secret is in my hands, if
I could only prove what I know; and yet, while she
is lost, what good would it be to me, even if I could
prove it? Nothing on earth is of any good, with-
out her.”
To reach the town he had to pass by the Sok,
which was usually deserted at this hour. But to-
night a small crowd of white- and brown-clad ﬁgures
were collected round the site of a dismantled booth.
They all seemed to be gathered about something or
some one lying on the ground.


298 A SECRET OF THE SEA
“Many things happen in Tangier,” replied the
man who knew. “ But very few things are found
out. When the weather is warm, we are not fond of
taking trouble. Witness the disappearance of the
young American heiress. We are all up in arms
about the matter, and_every man is keen to win the
reward—or the lady; yet nothing is done, or, if
anything is done, nothing comes of it. But, then,
she has probably eloped.”
The two men sauntered off together, but Peter
remained on the edge of the crowd. The informa-
tive Spaniard had told his friend that the bell-dancer
babbled of a secret which he knew concerning an
American woman; and then, before he could speak
out the secret, and so snatch revenge on persons
unknown, the dying man had lost the power of
speech.
There were perhaps many Americans still in
Tangier, though the season was late. Yet these
words, “ a secret that he knew about an American
woman,” echoed in Peter’s ears. The woman who
had come to him in Gibraltar with Betty’s letter had
been disguised in Moorish dress. It was certain
that she had confederates in Tangier, or Betty Man-
ners’s disappearance could not have been contrived
in her absence. Such a person as this old bell-
dancer, who was dying there in the middle of a curi-
ous crowd, could hardly have received and answered
the woman’s telegrams, but he might have been in


300 A SECRET OF THE SEA
tance, to make the risk worth while. And those who
took the risk must have been very conﬁdent of their
poison, that its action would be both sure and swift.
It was not every would-be criminal who had knowl-
edge of poisons and the skill to use them. Peter
was absorbed in the mystery of the Xenia, and his
theory had been built up on its ﬁrst foundation into
a solid structure now, as he was ready to tell Man-
ners. If-his deductions were right, the man who was
responsible for the mystery at its beginning was a
master of poisons; and -it was certain that confeder-
ates of that man were at present in Tangier. With
those connecting links in his mind, Peter began to
be exceedingly interested in the dead or dying bell-
dancer.
He forced his way into the thick of the crowd, and
ﬁnally caught a glimpse of a distorted old visage,
which once had been black, and was now of a bluish
ash colour. The bell-dancer had just breathed his
last, supported by a native man of medicine. Close
by his head squatted a dark-faced boy in nondescript
European dress, who looked like a cross between a
Moor and a Spaniard. Peter addressed him in
Spanish, hoping that he might understand. He be-
gan by asking a simple question about the dead
bell-dancer, and rejoiced to be answered in a queer,
Spanish patois which was mostly intelligible. Yes,
he knew the old dancer, said the boy; they lived in
the same neighbourhood. No, Sidi Mahrez had


302 A SECRET OF THE SEA
no private houses where he received charity? Oh,
yes, there was at least one. The boy had seen the
bell-dancer going to a villa which was let to strang-
ers for the winter. He had asked the old man what
he did there, and Mahrez had replied that he danced
in the courtyard to amuse an old Italian lady who
was unable to leave the house. This Italian lady
must have been very generous, because Mahrez
would not dance or do anything for nothing, and
he went often to the villa on the hill. Indeed, he
had probably been there that very afternoon, for
the boy had seen him on the way. There was no-
where else he would be going in that direction, for
it was a lonely place. A governor of Tangier, now
dead, had had the villa built for him, because his
doctor had told him he must live out of the smells
of the town, and have plenty of good air straight
from the sea. Yes, he was dead, and strangers had
his house, which was let with all its furniture. That
amused eccentric foreigners, for they liked the nov-
elty of things unlike those to which they were ac-
customed, and the villa, which was considered very
splendid, was never empty, though to rent it a goodly
sum must be paid.
“ Perhaps the Italian lady will go away soon,”
said Peter, “as it is now nearly the end of the
season. I might like to have such a place, if it were
to be let for next year. I will give you twice what I


IN THE MARKET PLACE 303
promised if you will take me out to see this villa
on the hill.”
It was almost dark, and doubtless the youth was
surprised that his patron, who looked tired, and
wore his arm in a sling, should care to go so far
when night was at hand, and so little to be seen.
But that was not his business, and Englishmen were
all eccentric, as he knew to his own advantage;
therefore he willingly gave his services as guide.
It was a long walk, and Peter’s pale face told no
lies as to his bodily sensations; but if he had been
twice as weary, and the distance twice as far, he
would have undertaken the expedition with the same
eagerness. There was just a possibility that he was
on his way to ﬁnd Betty; and the hope was a tonic.
He was thankful that a few overheard sentences had
given him this clue, if clue it could be called; and
he was thankful, too, that he had borrowed a re-
volver from Fox-Smith, although he could make
only left-handed use of it, in case the need arose.
When they reached the gate of the villa on the
bill, which overlooked Tangier and the sea, Peter
was about to dismiss his guide, when an idea oc-
curred to him. He was working for Betty now, as
well as for himself, and caution was worth more
than courage. He took out a pocket-book, in which
were three or four stray visiting-cards of his own.
On one of these he wrote a few words in English,


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 309
must be an object to you to keep back from the gen-
eral public.”
“ Sir! " exclaimed the young man in English,
“ you are insulting. I have no cause to be ashamed
of my name; rather the contrary. We have not, it is
true, advertised ourselves here; but that is because
we are not fond of notoriety, and my mother’s
health —”
“ It is not your name that I suggest you should be
ashamed of,” broke in Peter. “ Your shame should
lie in soiling an old and noble name with an ap-
palling crime. ‘ My honour is my life.’ That, I
know, is the motto of your family. How have you
and yours lived up to it? ”
“ I think you must be a madman! ” said the other,
suddenly become pale, with the yellow, waxen pallor
of very dark skins. “ What has brought you to this
house? ”
“ If you mean, how have I found it,” replied
Peter, quietly, “ it was through the death of the old
bell-dancer, upon whom you to-day tried one of your
mother’s famous family poisons, with the view of
preventing him from telling what he knew about
Miss Betty Manners.”
With an exclamation of rage Stefano di Dor-
rebianca sprang at the Englishman who stood so
calmly drawling insults. Peter did not look a for-
midable opponent, but with his left hand he whipped
a revolver from inside his gray tweed coat, and with


310 A SECRET OF THE SEA
an ominous click of the trigger covered the other’s
heart. The way in which the Italian checked his
own furious onslaught would have been almost comic
if Peter had been in a mood for laughter. But he
was in no such mood; and changing his slow, quiet
tone to one sharp and brimly incisive, he said:
“ Not a step farther, orjI ﬁre. Hands up, my
friend, and keep your mouth shut, if you are wise,
till I tell you to open it, unless you want to be as
dead as those whom your father and my cousin, the
Duca di Ravello, sent in a crowd to keep each other
company at the bottom of the Mediterranean a few
days ago. You look startled. You didn’t guess
that you were talking to a relative? Why should
you? Pahl I’m not proud of the relationship.
But you see now that the crime which has stained
you with blood has not left me without a foul splash
or two. Now, listen. I am going to tell you what
I know, and then I may ask you a few questions,
which I shall not only advise but command you to
answer. After that I will go on to tell you exactly
what I want you to do. But you look a little upset.
You are going to hear certain things which will up-
set you still more. There is a chair exactly, I should
say, two feet behind you -— a triﬂe to the left. You
had better sit down." '
Stefano di Dorrebianca obeyed, moving a step
backward, and dropping rather than sitting in the
chair indicated.


312 A SECRET OF THE SEA
before the crash. The estates were comparatively
barren. Your father had no capital of his own,
and as the banished Duca had been popular, and the
new man was known to have betrayed him, his posi-
tion was not as enviable as he had hoped.
“ Meanwhile the Duca had cursed Italy, which
once he had loved so well, and had become a man
without a country. He had also vowed to be re-
venged upon your father for his treachery, if it took
him twenty years to accomplish his revenge. Just
before his banishment, he had fallen in love with a
beautiful Irish girl, living abroad, named Betty Des-
mond. He had meant to ask her to be his wife,
'when the crash came. Then, as she was Protestant,
although Irish, they quarrelled and parted — he
thinking that she considered him disgraced, she be-
lieving that he did not care for her. He lived a
wandering life, spending a few months here, a few
months there. A year after seeing the last of Betty
Desmond, he heard that she was engaged to marry a
rich American named Manners. He could not bear
the thought of losing her for ever, but going to Eng-
land from France, where he then was, he begged
the girl to throw over her American lover and marry
him. She confessed that she loved him, but would
not consent to break her word; though perhaps she
would have been less ﬁrm if it had not been for her
aunt, who hated the Duca di Ravello and liked Man-
ners.


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 317
from famous people (all forged) applying for the
vacant berth.
“The Man Without a Country might have re-
membered that in old days his cousin used jokingly
to be called ‘The Chef’ because he had such a re-
markable taste for cookery, and could give points
to most professional chefs. But if he did remem-
ber, the recollection raised no suspicion in his mind
concerning Monsieur Anatole.
“ Now, a great many men in the history of the
world have planned murder for revenge or avarice
—or both. But usually they are content with a
single murder. Your father, however, had a larger
mind, and was ready to do what must be done on a
grand scale. If he made use of the poison, which he
and your mother had prepared, merely upon their
cousin and the young wife he had stolen from you,
he, as cook on board their yacht, would certainly be
suspected of causing their death by means of poison
in the food. Therefore, to save him, every one on
board must die, apparently including himself. Then
the fate of passengers and crew would remain an
impenetrable mystery. He would escape; no one
on earth would suspect that the Duca di Ravello had
been on board his banished cousin’s yacht.
“He and your mother, who was even cleverer
than he, had a plan almost without a ﬂaw. When
engaging as cook on board the Xenia, the alleged
Monsieur Anatole asked permission to bring with


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 327
fact, you may consider that I’ve apologized for
everything in a bunch. But even geniuses can’t work
without some sort of clue to start with. Where
under heaven did you get yours? ”
“ I began by deducing some things and assuming
more,” Peter answered. “ Then, when I began to
see things so clearly that it was maddening to think
how hard it would still be ever to convince others, I
found a lot of letters to my father, and his diary.
There were letters from his traitor cousin and from
the cousin’s wife. There were letters from my
mother—your dear Betty Desmond, Manners.
Last of all, there were letters from Miss Arnold.
Not an event in my father’s life, after his banish-
ment, until within a few days of his death, but was
set down in his diary; every mad freak, every wild
adventure, was recorded there. From what I
found, I was able by supplyinglinks from guesswork,
to build up the whole story. But it was not my
me'tier to let that fellow suspect that I guessed at
any of the details; to cow him completely I must
seem to know all. If I had made any serious mis-
takes, by the way, he would have seen my game.
But apparently I didn’t. Now I’ve admitted this,
perhaps you’ll take back your praise of me as a
‘ genius ’— and refuse to give me the promised re-
ward.”
“Oh, Dad, if you do, the reward will give it-
self!” cried Betty, laying one hand on Peter’s


328 A SECRET OF THE SEA
wounded arm, and the other on her father’s shoul-
der.
“ It takes genius to make no mistakes,” said Man-
ners. “I’ve much to thank you for, Peter.”
“And I’ve everything to love you for,” said
Betty.
_THE END,
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