my purpose. From it I could command the interior of the big
room, and step forth when the moment arrived. I crossed the corner of
the saloon in a bound, and turned the doorknob as silently as had Wong.

I opened the door and stepped in backwards. My eyes assured me I was
unseen. I closed the door, all save a crack, through which I meant to
watch for the coming of my victim.

I heard a gasp behind me. I shut the door tight and wheeled about--and
found myself staring into the wide-open eyes of the lady.

CHAPTER XX

She was on her knees, at the other end of the room. Aye, and it was a
room, a spacious cabin, not a cubbyhole berth I had blundered into; the
lady's own quarters, no less. There was a lamp burning in gimbals, and
its light disclosed to my first startled glance that it was a woman's
room. Aye, to my foc'sle-bred senses the quarters were palatial.

The lady crouched on her knees, with her skirts spread wide, and her
hands hidden behind her back. When first her eyes met mine, I saw she
was fear-stricken. But immediately she recognized me the fear gave way
to relief.

"Oh, I thought it was--" she began. Then she saw the revolver in my
hand, and the fear leaped into her eyes again. Aye, fear, and
comprehension. "That--oh, Boy, what do you mean to do?"

I had been gaping, open-mouthed, too surprised to utter a sound. But
her swift recognition, and her words, brought me to myself. Also, just
then we heard Captain Swope's voice. He was in the saloon, calling out
an order to the steward. We listened with strained attention, both of
us. He told the steward to open the lazaret hatch, and be sharp about
it.

I jerked my thumb over my shoulder, and nodded significantly to the
lady. "Don't be afraid, ma'am," I whispered. "He isn't going to hurt
Newman. He isn't going to hurt anyone--not any more." Oh, the dread
that showed in her face when we heard Swope's voice!

She brought her hands into view, when I spoke. Something she had been
holding behind her back dropped on the deck with a metallic clink, and
she pressed her hands against her bosom.

"You--you mean--" she began.

I nodded again. I really thought I was reassuring her, lifting a load
of care from her heart.

"I'm going out there and get him. Don't be afraid, ma'am. I won't
make a miss of it. He isn't going to hurt Newman, or you, or anyone,
after I've finished. And ma'am, please--will you try and slip for'ard
and tell