made my way to my own cabin, but, before I
reached it, the door of that occupied by the Fraeulein Valerie opened and
she came out. That something unusual was the matter I saw at a glance.

"Mr. Forrester," she said, with a scorn in her voice that cut like a
knife, "come here. I have something curious to show you."

I did as she wished, and forthwith she led me to her cabin. I was not
prepared, however, for what I found there. Crouching in a corner, almost
beside himself with fear, and with the frightened face of the monkey
Pehtes peering out from beneath his coat, was no less a person than
Pharos, the man I had hitherto supposed insensible to such an emotion.
In the presence of that death, however, which we all believed to be so
imminent, he showed himself a coward past all believing. Terror
incarnate stared from his eyes and rendered him unconscious of our
scorn. At every roll the vessel gave he shrank farther into his corner,
glaring at us meanwhile with a ferocity that was not very far removed
from madness.

At any other time and in any other person such an exhibition might have
been conducive of pity; in his case, however, it only added to the
loathing I already felt for him. One thing was very certain, in his
present condition he was no fit companion for the woman who stood
clinging to the door behind me. I accordingly determined to get him
either to his own cabin or to mine without delay.

"Come, come, Monsieur Pharos," I said, "you must not give way like this.
I have been on deck, and I can assure you there is no immediate danger."

As I said this I stooped and placed my hand upon his shoulder. He threw
it off with a snarl and a snap of his teeth that was more like the
action of a mad dog than that of a man.

"You lie, you lie!" he cried in a paroxysm of rage and fear. "I am
cursed, and I shall never see land again. But I will not die--I will not
die! There must be some way of keeping the yacht afloat. The captain
must find one. If any one is to be saved it must be me. Do you hear what
I say? It must be me."

For the abominable selfishness of this remark I could have struck him.

"Are you a man that you can talk like this in the presence of a woman?"
I cried. "For shame, sir, for shame! Get up and let me conduct you to
your own cabin."

With this I lifted him to his feet and, whether he liked it or not, half
led and half dragged him along the saloon to his own quarters. Once
there I placed him on his s