a
knotted lock. "She can be nice enough when she likes, but sometimes I
_hate_ that woman!"

Up on the deck beneath the double white awnings the atmosphere was
delightfully reassuring. A strong wind had arisen, and the water was
dashing up against the sides of the vessel in powdery columns of foam.
The mountains had disappeared and there was no land in sight. Katrine
felt a distinct surprise; geographical studies had not prepared her to
find the Red Sea so large!

By common consent the tragedy of the day before was banished from
conversation, and the different little companies of friends were grouped
about talking and reading after the ordinary morning fashion. Bedford
came forward to greet Katrine, looking cool and big in his loose white
clothes, and altogether unembarrassed and at his ease. As usual a
string of children followed at his heels, foremost among them that
"Jackey" who had been his devout admirer since the episode of his own
defeat. They scowled at Katrine, as the cause of their hero's
defection, but he waved them away with good-natured decision, and led
her forward to a corner of the deck where stood two chairs, and a small
table on which was placed a mysterious cardboard box.

"You are going to be amused this morning," he announced breezily. "Talk
is forbidden, so I've borrowed a toy. A jig-saw in four hundred pieces.
How's that for high? You and I are going to get it out before lunch?"

Katrine's aspect was not enthusiastic.

"Jig-saw! A puzzle, isn't it? I have never tried. Isn't it rather a
fag?"

"You wait and see!" The brown fingers rained the wooden morsels upon
the table. "You _think_ it a fag, until you begin--then it's a
possession! There's a man in the regiment who has 'em sent up from
Bombay, and we have a sweepstake for the quickest solutions. I once sat
up half the night, over three horses in a meadow; brown beggars, all of
'em, as like as three pins. Everybody's bits belonged to everybody
else, as much as to himself, and the rest was a mass of green stuff, cut
in points, diabolically alike. This is a locked fellow; all the better
for shipboard. It's the dickens when they joggle. Plenty of colour,
too. That's good for a start."

"Where is the picture?" asked Katrine innocently. She was bored at the
prospect of the jig-saw, but relieved at the geniality of Bedford's
manner, and anxious to respond to his efforts towards amusement. It was
a shock to hear that ther