ed, he was staggered by this
amazing bit of effrontery.

"You do not answer me," cried Mlle. Nadiboff. "You feel guilty indeed,
then?"

"Perhaps 'astonished' would be the more accurate word," Jack replied,
smiling now.

"My Captain, you were very pleasant with me, the first evening that we
met."

"That was before," nodded Captain Benson, still smiling. He stood cap
in hand, his whole bearing respectful, for he did not intend to be
discourteous even to this known adventuress. He would grant her at
least the courtesy due her sex.

"Before what?" she asked.

"Well, er--before that automobile ride the day."

"And why should that change your attitude toward me, my Captain?" asked
the young Russian. Her tone was coaxing, almost cooing; her eyes
extremely moist, as though the tears would spring forth in another
instant.

"Why, you see, Mademoiselle," laughed Jack, coolly, "the finish of that
automobile ride was just a trifle too exciting for me. I have plenty
of the strenuous side of life out at sea. When on shore my tastes are
all for the quiet, peaceful life."

"But surely you do not reproach me with having made the automobile ride
unpleasant?"

"Only that, as I remember it, you dropped some dust--or something--into
my eyes, and right after that two men took me away in your car--and
then things happened to me."

"Why, that was all a joke," protested the handsome young woman, gazing
keenly into his eyes.

"Then I'll laugh now--ha! ha! But seriously, Mademoiselle, I haven't
a sense of humor that will appreciate carrying a joke quite as far as
that one was carried."

"It was all a joke," Mlle Nadiboff insisted. "At least, M. Lemaire so
assured me. What ever you may have thought, my Captain, I beg you will
not believe that I had any notion of helping to cause you real
discomfort."

Her tone was so sincere in its ring, her eyes looked so honestly and
appealingly into the boy's that Jack, for an instant, had to wonder
whether he were dreaming.

"My Captain," continued the Russian girl, in a voice that trembled
softly, "I see, now, that I have been fearfully--cruelly--misunderstood
by you. That is more than I can bear. Come, let us take a little walk
together in the grounds. I want you to tell me just what part you
thought I had in some affair against you. I insist; it is my right to
know this. Your arm, my Captain!"

As she spoke, Mlle. Nadiboff slipped her soft little right hand inside
of C