what was left of her soul.

I should have liked to dash out of the room and with a shriek bring
everyone on board to my cabin. But I stood motionless, concentrating my
gaze on those trembling eyelids. Something inside me seemed to say:
"Don't be a coward, Elizabeth Courtenaye!" It was exactly like
Grandmother's voice. I had a conviction that _she_ wanted me to see this
thing through as a Courtenaye should, shirking no responsibility, and
solving the mystery of past and present without bleating for help.

The fringed lids parted, shut, quivered again, and flashed wide open. A
pair of pale eyes stared into mine--wicked eyes, cruel eyes, green as a
cat's. Like a cat, too, the creature gathered herself together as if for
a spring. Her muscles rippled and jerked. She sat up, and in chilled
surprise I thought I saw recognition in her stare.

CHAPTER VI

THE WOMAN OF THE PAST

"Oh, you've come at last!" she rasped, in a harsh, throaty voice
roughened by drink. "I know you. I----"

"And I know you!" I cut her short, to show that I was not cowed.

Sitting up in bed, hugging her knees, she started at my words so that
the springs shook. Whatever it was she had meant to say, she forgot it
for the moment, and challenged me: "That's a lie!" she snapped. "You
_don't_ know me yet--but you soon will."

"I've known you since you came into my room at Courtenaye Abbey the
night you tried to burn down the house," I said. "You were spying for
the Germans in the war. Heaven knows all the harm you may have done. I
can't imagine for whom you're spying now. Anyhow, you can't frighten me
again. The war's over, but I'll have you arrested for what you did when
it was on."

The woman scowled and laughed, more Medusa-like than ever. I really felt
as if she might turn me to stone. But she shouldn't guess her power.

"Pooh!" she said, showing tobacco-stained teeth. "You won't want to
arrest me when you hear who I am, Lady Shelagh Leigh!"

"Lady Shelagh Leigh!" It was on my lips to cry, "I'm not Shelagh Leigh!"
But I stopped in time. The less I let her find out about me, and the
more I could find out about her before rousing the yacht, the better. I
spoke not a word, but waited for her to go on--which she did in a few
seconds.

"That makes you sit up, doesn't it?" she sneered. "That hits you where
you _live_! Why did you think I chose your cabin? I didn't select it by
chance. I confess I was taken back at your remembering. I though