e with Doctor Marston when Alan
passed them, and he heard the door of Rossland's room close behind him.
The ship was trembling under his feet again. They were moving away. He
went to Mary Standish's cabin and deliberately gathered her belongings
and put them in the small hand-bag with which she had come aboard.
Without any effort at concealment he carried the bag to his room and
packed his own dunnage. After that he hunted up Stampede Smith and
explained to him that an unexpected change in his plans compelled them
to stop at Cordova. He was five minutes late in his appointment with
the captain.

Captain Rifle was seated at his desk when Alan entered his cabin. He
nodded toward a chair.

"We'll reach Cordova inside of an hour," he said. "Doctor Marston says
Rossland will live, but of course we can not hold the _Nome_ in port
until he is able to talk. He was struck through the window. I will make
oath to that. Have you anything--in mind?"

"Only one thing," replied Alan, "a determination to go ashore as soon as
I can. If it is possible, I shall recover her body and care for it. As
for Rossland, it is not a matter of importance to me whether he lives or
dies. Mary Standish had nothing to do with the assault upon him. It was
merely coincident with her own act and nothing more. Will you tell me
our location when she leaped into the sea."

He was fighting to retain his calmness, his resolution not to let
Captain Rifle see clearly what the tragedy of her death had meant
to him.

"We were seven miles off the Eyak River coast, a little south and west.
If her body goes ashore, it will be on the island, or the mainland east
of Eyak River. I am glad you are going to make an effort. There is a
chance. And I hope you will find her."

Captain Rifle rose from his chair and walked nervously back and forth.
"It's a bad blow for the ship--her first trip," he said. "But I'm not
thinking of the _Nome_. I'm thinking of Mary Standish. My God, it is
terrible! If it had been anyone else--_anyone_--" His words seemed to
choke him, and he made a despairing gesture with his hands. "It is hard
to believe--almost impossible to believe she would deliberately kill
herself. Tell me again what happened in your cabin."

Crushing all emotion out of his voice, Alan repeated briefly certain
details of the girl's visit. But a number of things which she had
trusted to his confidence he did not betray. He did not dwell upon
Rossland's influence or her