fe.

"So tradition hath it," he rejoined, with perfect unconcern. "It's a
queer out-of-the-way sort of name--I'm not sure I don't rather like it.
There's a creeping suggestion of witchery about it, too, which is on the
whole attractive."

He was looking at her straight in the eyes, for they had both risen, the
luncheon-bell having rung. She unflinchingly returned the glance, which
on both sides was that of two adversaries mentally appraising each other
prior to a rapier-bout.

"Then beware such unholy spells," she replied, with a light but
enigmatical laugh. And turning, she left him.

[Illustration: "BEWARE OF SUCH UNHOLY SPELLS," SHE REPLIED.]

Now Holmes, who, bursting with astonishment and trepidation as he beheld
how his friend was engaged, came bustling up, with a scared and furtive
demeanour.

"By the Lord, old man, we just have put our foot in it," he sputtered.
"All the time we were sitting here, Miss Ormskirk was just inside the
companion. She must have heard every word we said."

"Don't care a hang if she did."

"Man alive, but we were talking about her! About _her_, and she heard
it! Don't you understand?"

"Perfectly; still I don't care a hang. A hang? No, nor the rope, nor the
drop, nor the whole jolly gallows do I care. Will that do?"

Holmes gasped. This fellow Stanninghame was a lunatic. Mad, by Jove!
Still gasping as he thought of the enormity of the situation, he left
without another word, diving below to try and drown his confusion in a
whisky and soda, iced.

But the other, still lingering on the now deserted deck, was conscious
of a very unwonted sensation. The spell which he had derided so
bitterly when beholding others drawn within its toils had begun to weave
itself around him. This vague stirring of his mental pulses, what did it
mean? Heavens! it was horrible. It brought back old memories, whose
tin-pot unreality was never recalled save as subject matter for bitter
gibe and mockery. He could not have believed it possible.

"It's the nerves," he told himself. "These years of squalid worry have
done it. My nerves are shaken to bits. Well, I must pull them together
again. But oh, the bosh of it! the utter bosh of it!"

CHAPTER III.

"BEWARE SUCH UNHOLY SPELLS!"

The sway of Lilith Ormskirk over the saloon and quarter-deck of the
_Persian_ was as complete as any woman's sway ever is. From the grizzled
captain--nominally under whose charge she was making the voyage--down