of
it if you don't surrender without any more trouble. Do you hear me?"

He waited for an answer, and got none. I had him guessing, for it was
impossible to know how many of us might be there. Moreover, there was a
chance of working upon the superstition of the natives among the crew.
The cook had very likely reported that he had seen a ghost.

Except a shot out of the darkness no sound had come from me since. So
long as I kept silent the terror of the mystery would remain. Was I man
or devil? What was it spitting death at them from the black room?

"We're going to batter that door down," went on Bothwell, "and then
we're going to make you wish you'd never been born."

The voices fell again to a whispered murmur. Soon there would be a rush
and the door would be torn from its hinges. I made up my mind to get
Bothwell if I could before the end.

Above the mutterings came clearly a frightened soprano.

"What is it, Boris? What are you going to do?"

Evelyn had come out of her room to try to save me.

"Just getting ready to massacre your friend," her cousin answered
promptly.

"Mr. Sedgwick?"

Terror shook in the voice that died in her throat.

Bothwell bayed deep laughter.

"O-ho! My friend from Erin once more--for the last time. Come out and
meet your welcome, Sedgwick."

"Suppose you come and take me," I suggested.

"By God, I will! Back with you into that room, girl."

A door slammed and a key turned.

Still the rush did not come. I waited, nerves strung to the highest
pitch. One could have counted sixty in the dead silence.

I knew that some devilish plan had come to the man and that he was
working out the details of it in his mind.

"Say the word, Cap," Fleming called to him impatiently.

"Not just yet, my worthy George. We'll give the meddler an hour to say
his prayers. But I'm all for action. Since it isn't to be a funeral just
yet, what do you say to a marriage?"

"I don't take you."

"H-m! Hold this passage for a few minutes, George. You'll see what you'll
see."

A key turned in a lock. When I heard his voice again the man had stepped
inside the cabin used by Evelyn. It lay just back of the storeroom and
the portholes of the two rooms were not six feet apart. Every word that
was said came clearly to me.

"So you thought you'd trick me, my dear--thought you'd play a smooth
trick on your trusting cousin. Fie, Evie!"

"What are you going to do to Mr. Sedgwick?" she demanded.

"There's