on her, she flushed
violently. For this was what she read:

"I am glad of it, too, because under no other circumstances would I
wish to greet and embrace the woman destined to be your wife."

The knowledge that she had involuntarily intruded on Captain
Courtenay's private affairs brought her back with a certain slight
shock to a sense of actualities. The storm, the horrible danger she
was in, emerged from shadow-land. Why had he not come for her? Surely
there must have been some further mishap! Heavens! Was she alone on
the ship, alone with the dead men and the dying vessel? Her head swam
with a strange faintness, and she placed a hand to her eyes. She felt
that she must leave the cabin at once, and strive to make her way
unaided along the deck. Yes, whatever happened, she would go now. It
was too dreadful to wait there any longer in ignorance as to her fate.

Then Joey sprang in through the doorway, and, with that splendid
disregard for sentiment displayed by a fox-terrier who has just come
out of a first-rate fight, shook his harness until it rattled.

But he eyed the inrush of the sea with much disfavor, so he leaped up
on the table beside Elsie, and looked at her as though he would ask why
she had permitted this sacrilege.

Though the dog was apparently unscathed and in the best of condition,
his head and forepaws were blood-stained. His advent dispelled the
mist which was gathering in the girl's brain. She feared a tragedy,
yet Joey assuredly would not be so cheerful, so daintily desirous to
avoid the splashing water in the cabin, if his master were injured.
She was doubtful now whether to go on deck or not. The mere presence
of the dog was a guarantee that Courtenay had not quitted the ship.
Indeed, Elsie colored again, and more deeply, at the disloyalty of her
ungoverned fear. Joey's master would be the last man to desert a
woman, no matter what the excuse. She strove to listen for any
significant noises without, but wind and sea rendered the effort
useless to untrained ears, and there was no shooting or frenzied yells
to rise above the storm.

"Oh, Joey," she said, "I wish you could speak!"

The sound of her own voice startled her. In a fashion, it gave her a
measure of time. It seemed so long since she had heard a spoken word.
The captain could certainly have gone round the whole ship since he
left her. What could have detained him? She was yielding to
nervousness again, and was on t