now."

CHAPTER XIII.

MISS METFORD'S PLAN.

We coaled at Port Said like any ordinary steamer. Although I had more
than once made the Red Sea voyage, I had never before taken the
slightest interest in the coaling of the vessel on which I was a
passenger. This time everything was different. That which interested me
before seemed trivial now. And that which had before seemed trivial was
now absorbing. I watched the coaling--commonplace as the spectacle
was--with vivid curiosity. The red lights, the sooty demons at work,
every bag of coals they carried, and all the coal dust clouds they
created, were fitting episodes in a voyage such as ours. We took an
enormous quantity of coal on board. I remained up most of the night in a
frame of mind which I thought none might envy. I myself would have made
light of it had I known what was still in store for the _Esmeralda_ and
her company. It was nearly morning when I turned in. When I awoke we
were nearing the Red Sea.

On deck, the conversation of our party was always eccentric, but this
must be said for it: there was sometimes a scintillating brilliance in
it that almost blinded one to its extreme absurdity. The show of high
spirits which was very general was, in the main, unaffected. For the
rest it was plainly assumed. But those who assumed their parts did so
with a histrionic power which was all the more surprising when it is
remembered that the origin of their excellent playing was centred in
their own fears. I preserved a neutral attitude. I did not venture on
any overt act of insubordination. That would have only meant my
destruction, without any counter-balancing advantage in the way of
baulking an enterprise in which I was a most unwilling participator. And
to pretend what I did not feel was a task which I had neither stomach to
undertake nor ability to carry out successfully. In consequence I kept
my own counsel--and that of Edith Metford.

Brande was the most easily approached maniac I had ever met. His
affability continued absolutely consistent. I took advantage of this to
say to him on a convenient opportunity: "Why did you bring these people
with you? They must all be useless, and many of them little better than
a nuisance!"

"Marcel, you are improving. Have you attained the telepathic power? You
have read my mind." This was said with a pleasant smile.

"I can not read your mind," I answered; "I only diagnose."

"Your diagnosis is correct. I answer yo