o
successfully lie to such a man might be counted as a triumph.

Prothero opened the door into a little office leading off the hall, and
switched on the electric lights. For some short time, without any effort
to conceal his suspicion, he stared at Ford in silence.

"Well?" he said, at last. His tone was a challenge.

Ford had already given his assumed name and profession, and he now ran
glibly into the story he had planned. He opened his card-case and looked
into it doubtfully. "I find I have no card with me," he said; "but I am,
as I told you, Lieutenant Grant, of the United States Navy. I am all
right physically, except for my nerves. They've played me a queer trick.
If the facts get out at home, it might cost me my commission. So I've
come over here for treatment."

"Why to ME?" asked Prothero.

"I saw by your advertisement," said the reporter, "that you treated
for nervous mental troubles. Mine is an illusion," he went on. "I see
things, or, rather, always one thing-a battle-ship coming at us head on.
For the last year I've been executive officer of the KEARSARGE, and the
responsibility has been too much for me."

"You see a battle-ship?" inquired the Jew.

"A phantom battle-ship," Ford explained, "a sort OF FLYING DUTCHMAN.
The time I saw it I was on the bridge, and I yelled and telegraphed the
engine-room. I brought the ship to a full stop, and backed her. But it
was dirty weather, and the error was passed over. After that, when I saw
the thing coming I did nothing. But each time I think it is real." Ford
shivered slightly and glanced about him. "Some day," he added fatefully,
"it WILL be real, and I will NOT signal, and the ship will sink!"

In silence, Prothero observed his visitor closely. The young man seemed
sincere, genuine. His manner was direct and frank. He looked the part he
had assumed, as one used to authority.

"My fees are large," said the Russian.

At this point, had Ford, regardless of terms, exhibited a hopeful
eagerness to at once close with him, the Jew would have shown him the
door. But Ford was on guard, and well aware that a lieutenant in the
navy had but few guineas to throw away on medicines. He made a movement
as though to withdraw.

"Then I am afraid," he said, "I must go somewhere else."

His reluctance apparently only partially satisfied the Jew.

Ford adopted opposite tactics. He was never without ready money. His
paper saw to it that in its interests he was always able