hen she felt an arm grip her
tightly round the waist, and she heard a voice, which sounded as if it
had traveled down a long corridor, shouting in her ear:

"Lean well back and trust to me. Let go!"

She had no idea that wind could blow like that, especially when the
ship was going in the same direction. It shrieked and whistled and
tore at the canvas side-awnings with a vehemence that threatened to rip
them from their stays. Courtenay held her glued to his left side, and
there was something reassuring in his vice-like grasp. She had a dim
notion that he need not squeeze her quite so earnestly, until she
passed a gangway which led to the port side, between the deck cabins
and the music-room. Then she changed her opinion; were it not for the
strong arm which held her she would have been blown into the sea.

To reach the forward saloon they had to pass the boats near which
Courtenay had halted. The sailors saw them. During the first lull one
of the men said:

"The senor captain is escorting one of the English senoritas from the
saloon."

"Where is he taking her to?" asked another.

"Who knows?"

"It will be all the same wherever she is. If the ship goes, we go."

"Who can tell? These English are stupid. They always try to save
women first. Once, when I was on the--"

A few words in Spanish reached them from Mr. Boyle, and they went on
with their work. But such muttered confidences are eloquent of
mischief when the pinch comes.

At the forward end of the promenade deck, just beneath the bridge,
Elsie received another reminder of the force of the wind, which was
rendered almost intolerable by the lashing of the spray.

"I--can't--go on," she gasped. Courtenay felt, rather than heard, that
she was speaking to him. Without further ado, he picked her up in his
arms, and deposited her, all flushed and breathless, in the shelter of
the fore saloon hatch. If she were so anxious to see her friend the
doctor, he was determined she should not be disappointed.

"No time for explanations," he said, while she tremblingly clutched at
a rail which gave support down the companion-way. "Dr. Christobal is
below. But--I fear you will find a shocking scene. Perhaps you had
better let me take you back."

"No, no, not on my account. I think I am past feeling any sentiment.
I would far rather do something, be of some use, however slight."

A pungent smell of iodoform came to them up the hatchway. Joey, who
h