re, and the desire of your heart will be
gratified. You should be grateful to me, for had I not followed you to
Hamburg, it is quite certain _you_ would still be in that plague-ridden
city, and where would Valerie be? Well, Valerie would be----But there,
we will have no more of those little escapades, if you please, so
remember that. The next time you attempt to play me false, I shall know
how to deal with you. All things considered, it was a good day for me
when you fell in love with Valerie."

"What do you mean?" I asked, for I neither liked the look on his face
nor the way he spoke.

"I mean what I say," he answered. "You love Valerie, and she loves you;
but----Well, to put it mildly, she does what I tell her, and for the
future so must you! It would be as well, perhaps, if you would bear that
fact in mind."

I rose from the skylight upon which I had been sitting and faced him.

"Monsieur Pharos," I said, holding up my hand in protest, "you have gone
quite far enough. Let me advise you to think twice before you make use
of such threats to me. I do not understand by what right you speak to me
in this fashion."

"There are many things you do not understand, and at present it is not
my intention to enlighten you," he answered, with consummate coolness.
"Only remember this--while you act in accordance with my wishes, you are
safe, but if at any time you attempt to thwart me, I give you fair
warning I will crush you like a worm."

So saying, he darted another glance at me full of intense malignity, and
then took his departure. When he had gone I seated myself again and
endeavoured to solve the riddle of his behaviour. What his purpose could
be in keeping me with him, and why he was always threatening me with
punishment if I did not act in accordance with his wishes, were two
questions I tried to answer, but in vain. That there was something
behind it all which boded ill for myself, I felt morally certain, but
what that something was I had yet to discover. If I had known all, I
wonder what course of action I should have pursued.

For the remainder of the day I saw nothing of Pharos. He had shut
himself up in his cabin with only the monkey for company. Towards the
end of the afternoon, however, he sent for the captain, and they
remained closeted together for a quarter of an hour. When the latter
appeared again, it was with an unusually white face. He passed me on the
companion-ladder, and from the light I saw in his