and
very careful examination of Mr. Caldwell's effects, to ascertain if
there is any clew to a motive either for suicide or murder--sift the
thing to the bottom."

"Aye, aye, sir!" responded Mr. Brently, and left to commence his
investigation.

Hazel Strong was prostrated. For two days she did not leave her cabin,
and when she finally ventured on deck she was very wan and white, with
great, dark circles beneath her eyes. Waking or sleeping, it seemed
that she constantly saw that dark body dropping, swift and silent, into
the cold, grim sea.

Shortly after her first appearance on deck following the tragedy,
Monsieur Thuran joined her with many expressions of kindly solicitude.

"Oh, but it is terrible, Miss Strong," he said. "I cannot rid my mind
of it."

"Nor I," said the girl wearily. "I feel that he might have been saved
had I but given the alarm."

"You must not reproach yourself, my dear Miss Strong," urged Monsieur
Thuran. "It was in no way your fault. Another would have done as you
did. Who would think that because something fell into the sea from a
ship that it must necessarily be a man? Nor would the outcome have
been different had you given an alarm. For a while they would have
doubted your story, thinking it but the nervous hallucination of a
woman--had you insisted it would have been too late to have rescued him
by the time the ship could have been brought to a stop, and the boats
lowered and rowed back miles in search of the unknown spot where the
tragedy had occurred. No, you must not censure yourself. You have
done more than any other of us for poor Mr. Caldwell--you were the only
one to miss him. It was you who instituted the search."

The girl could not help but feel grateful to him for his kind and
encouraging words. He was with her often--almost constantly for the
remainder of the voyage--and she grew to like him very much indeed.
Monsieur Thuran had learned that the beautiful Miss Strong, of
Baltimore, was an American heiress--a very wealthy girl in her own
right, and with future prospects that quite took his breath away when
he contemplated them, and since he spent most of his time in that
delectable pastime it is a wonder that he breathed at all.

It had been Monsieur Thuran's intention to leave the ship at the first
port they touched after the disappearance of Tarzan. Did he not have
in his coat pocket the thing he had taken passage upon this very boat
to obtain? There wa