I want to see my friends in Pera,
by and by there is a ship. You understand? An' then, here on the ship, I
hear somesing. Oh, tell me, _mon cher_, what time we arrive at Ismir?"

He was hardly listening to her, so busy were his thoughts with the vista
opening out before him. He was vaguely conscious that he was passing
through a crisis, that Fate had suddenly laid all her cards on the table
and was watching him, with bright amber eyes, waiting for him to make
out what those cards portended. Here, she seemed to say, is everything
you have ever dreamed of, adventure, romance, and the long-imagined
pleasures of love.

"To-night?" she persisted, lying back in his arms. And watching him,
sensing his uncertainty, her gaze hardened, she sat up away from him,
waiting for him to speak, as though she were fate indeed. Always she
gave him that impression of hair-trigger readiness to fight, to rip and
tear and give no quarter. As he looked at her now, turning over his dire
predicament the while, he noticed the truculent solidity of her jaw, the
indomitable courage and steadiness of her gaze.

"Wait," he muttered, putting up his hand and then holding it to his
brow. "I must think. I don't know when we arrive. To-morrow, perhaps."

"Why do you look so sad?" she demanded. "_Mon Dieu!_ To-morrow at Ismir.
What happiness!"

"For you," he added in a low voice.

"And for you," she twittered in his ear and patting his hand. "I see the
plan of Monsieur Dainopoulos now. We shall have good fortune."

There was a faint tap at the door.

"Supper, Madama," said the young Jew, making a low bow, and they went
up.

Mr. Spokesly, sitting on the engineer's settee an hour later and
discussing the matter cautiously with that person, was not so sure of
the good fortune.

"What can we do?" he asked, and the engineer, who was of a peaceful
disposition and perfectly satisfied so long as he got his pay, said:

"You can't do nothing in this fog. He's the captain."

"We may hit something," said Mr. Spokesly, who was talking more for
comfort than for enlightenment.

"Why, yes, we may do that. Do it anywhere, come to that. Where do you
think we are now, Mister Mate?"

"I don't know, I tell you. He says to me, 'I'll attend to the course,'
and he may have put her round. But I've got a notion he's carrying out
his orders. I see now why I got six months' pay. Did you?"

"No, I got a note on the captain, same as usual," said Mr. Cassar.

"What do