p is a dreadfully prosy old gentleman," Lady Meadowcroft
answered, gliding off at a tangent on a personality, as is the wont of
her kind; "he had, oh, such a dreadful quarrel with my father over the
rules of the St. Alphege Schools at Millington."

"Indeed," Hilda answered, turning once more to her book. Lady
Meadowcroft looked annoyed. It would never have occurred to her that
within a few weeks she was to owe her life to that very abstruse work,
and what Hilda had read in it.

That afternoon, as we watched the flying fish from the ship's side,
Hilda said to me abruptly, "My chaperon is an extremely nervous woman."

"Nervous about what?"

"About disease, chiefly. She has the temperament that dreads
infection--and therefore catches it."

"Why do you think so?"

"Haven't you noticed that she often doubles her thumb under her
fingers--folds her fist across it--so--especially when anybody talks
about anything alarming? If the conversation happens to turn on jungle
fever, or any subject like that, down goes her thumb instantly, and she
clasps her fist over it with a convulsive squeeze. At the same time,
too, her face twitches. I know what that trick means. She's horribly
afraid of tropical diseases, though she never says so."

"And you attach importance to her fear?"

"Of course. I count upon it as probably our chief means of catching and
fixing her."

"As how?"

She shook her head and quizzed me. "Wait and see. You are a doctor; I, a
trained nurse. Before twenty-four hours, I foresee she will ask us.
She is sure to ask us, now she has learned that you are Lady Tepping's
nephew, and that I am acquainted with several of the Best People."

That evening, about ten o'clock, Sir Ivor strolled up to me in the
smoking-room with affected unconcern. He laid his hand on my arm and
drew me aside mysteriously. The ship's doctor was there, playing a quiet
game of poker with a few of the passengers. "I beg your pardon, Dr.
Cumberledge," he began, in an undertone, "could you come outside with me
a minute? Lady Meadowcroft has sent me up to you with a message."

I followed him on to the open deck. "It is quite impossible, my dear
sir," I said, shaking my head austerely, for I divined his errand. "I
can't go and see Lady Meadowcroft. Medical etiquette, you know; the
constant and salutary rule of the profession!"

"Why not?" he asked, astonished.

"The ship carries a surgeon," I replied, in my most precise tone. "He is
a dul