ather a nuisance to carry
about. You're shivering, Lottie. We must take some more exercise. See
you later, sir."

And the two went off again. The girl had not looked at me, nor I at
her. She did not seem to be interested in our conversation. As for her
companion, he restored my pride in my race.

I began to whistle. Suddenly the whistle died on my lips. Standing
exactly opposite to me, on the starboard side, was the mysterious
being whom I had last seen in the railway carriage at Sittingbourne.
He was, as usual, imperturbable, sardonic, terrifying. His face, which
chanced to be lighted by the rays of a deck lantern, had the pallor
and the immobility of marble, and the dark eyes held me under their
hypnotic gaze.

Again I had the sensation of being victimized by a conspiracy of which
this implacable man was the head. I endured once more the mental
tortures which I had suffered in the railway carriage, and now, as
then, I felt helpless and bewildered. It seemed to me that his
existence overshadowed mine, and that in some way he was connected
with the death of Alresca. Possibly there was a plot, in which the
part played by the jealousy of Carlotta Deschamps was only a minor
one. Possibly I had unwittingly stepped into a net of subtle intrigue,
of the extent of whose boundaries and ramifications I had not the
slightest idea. Like one set in the blackness of an unfamiliar
chamber, I feared to step forward or backward lest I might encounter
some unknown horror.

It may be argued that I must have been in a highly nervous condition
in order to be affected in such a manner by the mere sight of a man--a
man who had never addressed to me a single word of conversation.
Perhaps so. Yet up to that period of my life my temperament and habit
of mind had been calm, unimpressionable, and if I may say so, not
specially absurd.

What need to inquire how the man had got on board that ship--how he
had escaped death in the railway accident--how he had eluded my sight
at Dover Priory? There he stood. Evidently he had purposed to pursue
me to Paris, and little things like railway collisions were
insufficient to deter him. I surmised that he must have quitted the
compartment at Sittingbourne immediately after me, meaning to follow
me, but that the starting of the train had prevented him from entering
the same compartment as I entered. According to this theory, he must
have jumped into another compartment lower down the train as the train