able to protect me even here; His will be done!"

She turned away, and Ned, offering his arm, half led, half supported
Sibylla into the cabin; and, as he poured out and offered her a glass of
wine from a decanter which stood in one of the swinging trays over the
table, he exclaimed:

"Oh! Miss Stanhope, what can I say, or how express the sorrow and
regret I feel at the knowledge that it is through me you are placed in
this terrible position. Believe me--"

"Say no more, Mr Damerell, I entreat you," interrupted Sibylla. "I
know that you have no cause for self-reproach; we are both equally
unfortunate. For, if I am detained on board this ship a prisoner, so
are you; your prospects in life are as completely blighted as mine. And
I have at least the comfort of that man's assurance--in which I believe
he was quite sincere--that I shall be treated with consideration and
respect. Indeed, terrible as must be my position here, I am by no means
sure that I am not safer where I am than is my poor sister on that
lonely island. What may be her fate and that of those who are with her
who can tell? to what dangers and privations will not they be exposed?
It is terrible only to think of it. And now let me thank you for your
noble and self-sacrificing efforts just now on my behalf. Come what
will, I shall never forget them, nor shall I ever forget that you have
proved yourself our true and staunch friend, forgetting yourself and all
your own trouble and peril in your anxiety to help and befriend us.
Tell me, do you think there is any possibility of our ever being able to
make our escape from these dreadful people?"

"Well," said Ned, "I should not like to raise hopes which may never be
fulfilled, but I think there _is_ just a possibility of it. You must
not build too much on what I say, because it would be idle to deny that
our future is beset with difficulties and perils. The absence of your
brother-in-law, the doctor, and Mr Gaunt is an irreparable loss to us,
to say nothing of that of the captain and young Manners, both of whom
will, I feel sure, be landed somewhere within the next few days. But do
not despair; perhaps, when Williams has rid himself of them, his
vigilance may relax. I should, under any circumstances, have tried to
escape, and you may rest assured that, as your deliverance seems now to
depend almost wholly upon me, my thoughts will more than ever be given
to the project. What you have to do is to thi