ind. Don't bother to answer me. What happened next?"

"Well, for a minute I just stood there," said Nan, her eyes searching
nervously for the reappearance of the two men on deck. "I guess I was
just too surprised or frightened to speak, for the shadow on the door
was that of a man, and he was trying the door!"

"Oh, Nan, what did you do?" demanded her wide-eyed chum. "I should just
have screamed and run away."

"A lot of good that would have done," said Nan, a little contemptuously.
"I wanted to scream, but I didn't think of running away."

"Of course you wouldn't," said Bess humbly. "But go on, Nan. What did
you do?"

"I threw a bathrobe over my grip in the first place," said Nan. "I had
left it standing out in the room. And then I pulled the door open just
as the man started to open it from the outside."

"Oh, Nan!" cried Bess again. "Then he really meant to come in?"

"Of course he did--although he said he didn't," said Nan grimly. "When I
pulled the door open suddenly and stood looking at him he acted as if I
was a ghost or something. He did for a minute, that is. Then he
straightened up and sort of put on a smile--you know, the way you would
put on a coat to cover up a soiled dress or something----"

"Why, Nan, I never----" Bess began indignantly, then interrupted herself
again. "Never mind me," she begged. "You've got me so excited that I
don't know just what I'm saying. What happened then, Nan? Didn't you say
something?"

"Of course I said something," returned Nan. "I asked him what he was
doing at my stateroom door and what he wanted."

"What did he say?" whispered Bess, her eyes wide in wonder.

"He said that he was very sorry. That he thought this was his stateroom.
That he wouldn't have startled me for the world. And then he bowed
himself out and I slammed the door after him."

"But, Nan," Bess had regained her breath again and felt in the mood for
an argument, "how do you know that the man really hadn't made a mistake?
I suppose it would be easy enough to get mixed up."

"Bess, that man didn't make any mistake," said Nan Sherwood with such
conviction in her voice that once more Bess was startled.

"How do you know?"

"He was the meanest man I ever saw--his looks I mean," said Nan,
apparently not noticing her chum's interruption. "If you could have seen
him as I opened the door, you would feel just the way I do. He had
probably seen us going down to dinner and thought it was a good chance
to