n not escape. I am chained to him
for life by a bond that is stronger than fetters of steel. I can not
leave him. O God! I can not leave him!"

She fell back against the wall and once more covered her face with her
hands, while her slender frame shook with convulsive sobs.

"So be it then," I said; and as I did so I took off my hat. "If you will
not leave him, I swear before God I will not go alone! It is settled,
and I sail with him for Egypt to-morrow."

She did not attempt to dissuade me further, but, making her way to the
door in the wall through which she had entered the street, opened it and
disappeared within. I heard the bolts pushed to, and then I was in the
street alone.

"The die is cast," I said to myself. "Whether good or evil, I accompany
her to-morrow, and, once with her, I will not leave her until I am
certain that she no longer requires my help."

Then I resumed my walk to my hotel.

CHAPTER VIII.

The clocks of the city had struck ten on the following evening when I
left the carriage which Pharos had sent to convey me to the harbour,
and, escorted by his servant, the same who had sat beside the coachman
on the occasion of our drive home from Pompeii on the previous evening,
made my way down the landing-stage and took my place in the boat which
was waiting to carry me to the yacht.

Throughout the day I had seen nothing either of Pharos or his ward, nor
had I heard anything from the former save a message to the effect that
he had made arrangements for my getting on board. But if I had not seen
them I had at least thought about them--so much so, indeed, that I had
scarcely closed my eyes all night. And the more attention I bestowed
upon them the more difficult I found it to account for the curious
warning I had received from the Fraeulein Valerie. What the danger was
which threatened me it was beyond my power to tell. I endeavoured to
puzzle it out, but in vain. Had it not been for that scene on the
Embankment, and his treatment of me in my own studio, to say nothing of
the suspicions I had erroneously entertained against him in respect of
the murder of the curiosity dealer, I should in all probability have
attributed it to a mere womanly superstition which, although it appeared
genuine enough to her, had no sort of foundation in fact. Knowing,
however, what I did, I could see that it behooved me, if only for the
sake of my own safety, to be more than cautious, and when I boarded the
ya