lusion was, when I thought the whole thing out, that the man
Black could be showing me this marked consideration only for some
motive of self-interest. It was evident that he had been aware of my
intention to follow him from the moment when Roderick purchased our new
steam-yacht. He had put one of his own men craftily upon the ship to
watch us, and had made a bold attempt to deal with us in mid-Atlantic.
Foiled there, he had taken advantage of my folly in entering such a
place as the Bowery, and had given orders that I should be carried to
his own ship--for I knew then that the strange craft he owned was
capable of many disguises--and should be carried alive. Why alive, if
not that he might learn all about me, or that a more dreadful fate than
mere death should be mine? I had seen the appalling end of poor Hall,
the merciless severity with which his death had been compassed: why
should I expect more gentle usage or other recompense? If ever man had
been trapped, I had been; and, beneath all my placid self-restraint, I
felt that my life was not worth an hour's--nay, perhaps ten
minutes'--purchase. It was as if I had been taken clean out of the
world with no man to extend me a helping hand. Roderick, truly, would
move heaven and earth to reach me, but what could he hope for against
such a crew; or how should I expect to be alive when he brought his
attempts to a head? And I thought of him with deep feelings of
friendship at that moment, and wondered what Mary would say. She will
be serious, I argued, for the first time in her life, and they will
know much anxiety. Yet that must be--in the floating tomb where I lay I
could hope to send no word to the living world which I had left.

I had smoked one cigar in the cabin, listening to the tremendous throb
of the ship's screws, and the swish of the sea as we cleaved it, when
the electric light went out, and I was left in darkness. The sudden
change gave me some alarm, and I cocked my revolver, being resolute to
account for one man at least, if any attempt were made upon me; but
when I had sat quite still for some half-an-hour there was no noise of
movement save on the deck above, and my own cabin remained as still as
the grave. It appeared that I was to be left unmolested for that night
at any rate; and, being something of a philosopher, I waited for
another hour or so, and finding that no one came near me, I undressed
and lay down in one of the most seductive beds I have met wi