ousness."

"What the devil do you mean?"

"Why just an accident, done on purpose. To all it will appear an
accident. To _her_,--attempted suicide. To you and me, simply bluff.
I'll be the first to see you go, and a life-buoy will go after you in a
trice. Only let's know when you contemplate bringing it off, so that I
can be stationed near one. There'll be no time lost. 'Man overboard!'
and the engines will be stopped, reversed, a boat lowered, and there you
are! You'll be fished out apparently drowned--or nearly--and with hot
water bottles and brandy you'll be well enough to see Miss Kitty in your
cabin in half an hour."

"What price, sharks?" asked Jack, to whom the adventure strongly
appealed,--as an adventure, if nothing else. He could imagine the
commotion on the ship, and Kitty, white with anxiety and self-reproach,
hanging over the rails as she watched his chances of recovery from the
briny deep.

"Fellows have been known to fall overboard in the Arabian Sea, and one
never hears of sharks. You'll have to risk it. Take a sailor's knife;
then, if you are attacked you can put up a fight till you are picked
up."

All day Kitty avoided Jack and surrounded herself with the callow youth
of the vessel. She appeared in high spirits, played deck quoits, and did
not give him a minute's chance to get a word with her, till the idea in
his mind, of attempted suicide, took root and developed after serious
and profound thinking. Something would have to be done. He could not
exist another day apart from Kitty, severed from her heart, and
condemned to wear his out in agonies of despair and remorse.

The following morning, after breakfast, Kitty's attitude being
unchanged, Jack hung upon the taffrail, and, surveying the clear,
emerald-green waves as they heaved past the sides of the ship,
telegraphed with his eyes to his resourceful friend.

The sea was choppy and glittered like jewels in the sunlight. Sea-gulls
skimmed the surface and circled in the wake of the steamer, which was
travelling fast, the speed of the engines causing a gentle vibration of
the decks, while the ratlins trembled in the breeze.

It would require some nerve to plunge into the waves, fully clothed; but
he was in light, deck shoes which could be kicked off; and his coat
could easily be sacrificed in the water. It was an old suit!

Sharks?--

They had seen none since entering these waters. Besides, he was ready to
take his chance, or to fight, if i