s, had visited her father's house whenever medical aid was
needed. Formerly he had been full of life and vigor; a man of most
affable bearing, while now he was morose, almost diffident. Since her
return to consciousness, she had not once seen a smile on his face.
Instead, his expression was always abstracted and remote. Moreover, at
times, the girl had seen him turn his face quickly to the south as if
moved by some irresistible and baneful attraction. And, too, at such
times he had shuddered visibly. Ethel felt convinced that there remained
something very frightful in the story still to be told concerning the
wreck of the yacht. As she watched the man, a vague fear developed in
her--a fear of him, for him. She had as yet no suspicion that she had
been in mortal peril through the act of this man. But she was more than
half convinced that he could be no longer a safe protector, for the
peculiarity of his appearance and manner soon convinced her that he was
actually deranged. It was evident that he desired to be left to his own
musings. So, for a long time, she refrained from any attempt toward
conversation. She even feigned sleep, but through the long, brown lashes
she continued to study the worn and harassed visage before her. And it
was during this period of sly observation that she detected his deft
resort to the hypodermic syringe. She witnessed as well the febrile
anxiety with which he once more inspected the number of pellets. She
noted with dismay the horror in his drawn features as he stared at the
vial. Her ears even caught his whispered words:

"Only two!"

But before the startled and apprehensive girl could formulate a
conclusion as to the significance of what she had seen and heard, there
came an interruption.

In the spring great numbers of shad journey from the depths of the
Atlantic to their spawning grounds far up in the head waters of the
Neuse and Pamlico Rivers. The Sound fisherman is alert to know the time
of their coming and stakes his gill nets all along the miles upon miles
of shallows away from the buoy-marked channel of the Sound, in order
that he may gain for himself the high prices paid in the northern
markets for these delicacies of the sea. It is the rule that after the
shad season the stakes to which the nets had been tied shall be removed.
But sometimes carelessness, or worse, leaves the stakes in their places.
In many instances these are broken off below the surface of the water by
the b