on who looked as if he had been
buried and dug up again. Her firm mouth quivered a little, and there
was a suspicion of moisture in the sullen, wrathful eyes.

"Now that you've had your lark perhaps you'll turn your beastly ship
round again and put me ashore," she strove to speak bravely. "I shall be
fined as it is, for not being back on time."

Brant wheezed and cackled. "You've done with fines, my dear," he said,
running an approving glance over the imposing female figure in the
shabby black dress. "I'm going to be a father to you and make your
fortune. Fact is there's a lady passenger coming aboard presently who'll
want different company from us rough sailor-men, and I was bound to find
it for her. The moment you stepped out of that cab I spotted you for the
job, and there's not a bit of use in making a fuss. It'll be a gold mine
for you before you've done with it. You'll never need to stand behind a
counter again and be cheeked by rude old women--no, not in your
natural."

The tall draper's assistant measured the captain with a calculating eye,
and saw that in him that was not to be reckoned in inches. She was
already mastering her indignation at the outrage. "You don't mean to put
me ashore?" she said firmly.

"I'm d----d if I do," was Brant's energetic rejoinder.

She appeared to reflect. "If there's really money in it I don't so much
mind," she said at length. "But if you want a quiet time you'll have to
meet me on one thing. You must run into Plymouth on your way down
Channel and give me a chance to let my young man know where I am. He's
in the Navy--a petty officer on the destroyer _Snipe_."

Captain Brant rubbed his chin as if weighing the feasibility of the
proposition. "Well," he said, "it won't be at all convenient, but I'll
stretch a point to oblige you. You don't want to see the gentleman?"

"No, so long as I can send word to him, or get a letter posted, it will
be all right."

"Then I'll do that much for the sake of a quiet life."

"You'll have to, or there'll be trouble," replied the matter-of-fact
young amazon, little guessing that the villainous skipper had not the
slightest intention of fulfilling his promise. A naval port, bristling
with warships, was the very last place the _Cobra_ would be likely to
visit after her contemplated doings at Ottermouth that night.

However, having for the time pacified his stewardess, he became civil
enough and allotted her a comfortable cabin near the salo