g,_" and the
words heavily underscored; then came wild phrases meant for April's
private eyes alone.

"I am leaving you to face it all. For God's sake forgive me and keep
your promise. Never let any one on the ship or in Africa know the
truth. Spare my poor father the agony of having his name dragged in
the dust as well as losing his daughter. Do not do anything except
under the counsel of _the other person_ on this ship who knows the
truth and who will advise you the exact course to take. But do not
approach him in any way or speak of this to him until all the misery
and excitement of my suicide is over. I have written to him, too, and
he will advise you at the right time, but to drag him into this would
only ruin his career, and earn my curse for ever. I trust you utterly
in all this. Oh, April, do not betray my trust! Do not fail me! I
beg and implore you with my last breath to do as I ask. Go on using my
name, and money, and everything belonging to me until the moment that
_he_ advises you to either write my father the truth or return to
England and break it to him personally. If he hears it in any other
way it will kill him, and his blood be on your soul as well as mine. I
pray, I beseech, I implore you, be faithful to your unhappy friend,

"DIANA."

It took a long time for April's stricken mind to absorb the meaning of
it all. Over and over she read the blurred tear-blistered sentences,
sometimes weeping, sometimes painfully muttering them aloud to herself.
When she had finished at last, her course was set, her mind made up.
She knew the letter by heart, and sitting up in bed, white as a ghost,
she slowly destroyed it into minutest atoms, putting them into a little
purse that lay in the rack beside her. Then she rang the bell. To the
stewardess who came she said calmly, but with pallid lips:

"If Miss Poole is in her cabin, ask her to come to me."

Then she whipped out of bed, flung on a wrapper, and arranged her hair.
When the woman returned, she knew the answer before it was spoken.

"Miss Poole is not in her cabin. Her bed has not been slept in."

"Ask the Captain to come here."

In a few moments it was all over. The Captain had come and gone again,
with the first page of Diana's letter in his hand. The procedure after
that was much the same as it had been two nights before, except that
the Captain went alone on his search, and the result, with the evidence
he held in his hand, w