han you do when you run away from me,
my dear Forrester. However, I don't know that that fact matters very
much. What we have to deal with is your obliging offer to refuse to land
in England. Perhaps you will be good enough to tell me, in the event of
your not doing so there, where you will condescend to go ashore! The
Margrave of Brandenburg is only a small vessel, after all, and with the
best intention she cannot remain at sea for ever."

"What we wish to tell you is," I answered, "that we have decided not to
be the means of introducing this terrible scourge into a country that so
far is free from it."

"A very philanthropic decision on your part," he answered sarcastically.
"Unfortunately, however, I am in a position to be able to inform you
that your charity is not required. Though the authorities are not aware
of it, the plague has already broken out in England. For this reason you
will not be responsible for such deaths as may occur."

He paused and looked first at Valerie and then at myself. The old light
I remembered having seen in his eyes the night he had hypnotised me in
my studio was shining there now. Very soon the storm which had been
gathering broke, and its violence was the greater for having been so
long suppressed.

"I have warned you several times already," he cried, shaking his fist at
me, "but you take no notice. You will try to thwart me again, and then
nothing can save you. You fool! cannot you see how thin the crust is
upon which you stand? Hatch but one more plot, and I will punish you in
a fashion of which you do not dream. As with this woman here, I have but
to raise my hand, and you are powerless to help yourself. Sight,
hearing, power of speech, may be all taken from you in a second, and for
as long a time as I please." Then, turning to Valerie, he continued, "To
your cabin with you, madam. Let me hear no more of such talk as this, or
'twill be time for me to give you another exhibition of my power."

Valerie departed to her cabin without a word, and Pharos, with another
glance at me, entered his, while I remained standing in the centre of
the saloon, not knowing what to do nor what to say.

It was not until late that evening that I saw him again, and then I was
on deck. The sea was much smoother than in the morning, but the night
wind blew cold. I had not left the companion-ladder very long before I
was aware of a man coming slowly along the deck towards me, lurching
from side to side