get into the stateroom and steal----"

"Steal!" gasped poor Bess, for Nan was getting her pretty thoroughly
frightened. "You mean he was a thief, Nan?"

"Of course," Nan returned impatiently. "I don't suppose honest men are
in the habit of sneaking into empty staterooms."

"But if it was a mistake----" Bess interrupted, grasping at a straw.

"It wasn't any mistake," Nan repeated gravely. "If he had thought it was
his own door, he would have opened it quickly. He wouldn't have been so
slow and cautious about it."

"But, Nan! what could he have wanted to steal from us? It isn't as
though we had one of those handsome staterooms down below that cost a
fortune to hire even for a night. We haven't anything so very valuable."

"Except Mrs. Bragley's papers," said Nan grimly. "I wonder you didn't
think of them."

"Oh!" said Bess. "The papers! Yes, of course there were the papers. Why,
Nan," she turned upon her chum excitedly, "do you really suppose they
can be as important as that? Why, I never dreamed----"

"I know you didn't. But I did," said Nan decidedly. She then added under
her breath as the two men turned a corner and again headed down the deck
toward them: "Don't say anything. Wait until these men have passed and
then look at them, the tall, thin one in particular."

Bess was about to exclaim, but Nan silenced her with a look and they
waited quietly while the strangers once more sauntered past them.
Evidently they were taking a prolonged constitutional about the deck.

Bess stole a quick glance at them and then turned back to her chum.

"They are the same men who passed us just a little while ago," she said
with a puzzled frown.

"Yes. And one of them, the tall, thin one with a slit for a mouth, is
the man who tried to enter our stateroom," said Nan earnestly. "I'm just
telling you this so that you will be more careful to lock our stateroom
door whenever you go in or out."

"Goodness--Gracious--Agnes!" gasped Bess, mimicking Procrastination
Boggs in her agitation. "You are actually making me nervous, Nan
Sherwood. Lock the door, indeed! As if we were afraid of being murdered
in our beds! Why, I sha'n't sleep a wink to-night. I never heard of such
a thing."

"You needn't look at me as if I were to blame," said Nan with spirit. "I
didn't ask that horrid thin thing and his little fat friend to follow us
all over and nearly give me heart failure. I'll be glad when this trip
is over, I'll tell you that."