l."

Bell beamed.

"Thinking," he confided, "is usually a bad habit, especially in a
girl. But if you must think, I approve of your choice of subjects.
What were you thinking about me?"

The brown eyes regarded him still more speculatively.

"I was wondering--" said Paula, glancing to either side, "I was
wondering if you happen to be--er--a member of the United States
Secret Service."

Bell laughed with entire naturalness.

"Good Lord, no!" he said amusedly. "I have a desk in the State
Department building, and I read consular reports all day long and
write letters bedeviling the consuls for not including unavailable
statistics in their communications. That's my work. I'm on leave now."

* * * * *

She looked skeptical and, it may be, disappointed.

"You look as if you didn't believe me," said Bell, smiling. "I give
you my word of honor I'm not a member of the United States Secret
Service. Will that do to relieve your suspicions?"

"I believe you," she said slowly, "but it does not relieve my mind. I
shall think about other people. I have something important to tell a
member of the United States Secret Service."

Bell shrugged.

"I'm sorry," he said amiably, "that I can't oblige you by tipping one
of them off. That's what you wanted me to do, isn't it?"

She nodded, and the gesture was very much like a dismissal. Bell
frowned, hesitated, and went on. He was anxious to meet the stoker,
but this....

The siren droned dismally over his head. Fog lay deep about the ship.
The washing of the waves and dripping of water on the decks was
depressing. It seemed to be getting thicker. Four stanchions ahead,
the mist was noticeable. He found that he could count five, six,
seven.... The eighth was indefinite. But a bar materialized in the fog
before him, and the grayness drew away before him and closed in
behind. When he was at the forward end of the promenade, looking down
upon the forecastle deck, he was isolated. He heard footsteps some
distance overhead. The watch officer up on the bridge. Bell glanced up
and saw him as an indistinct figure. He waited until the officer paced
over to the opposite side of the bridge. The air throbbed and shook
with the roaring of the siren.

Bell slipped over the edge of the rail and swung swiftly down the
little ladder of iron bars set into the ship's structure. In seconds
he had landed, and was down upon that terra incognita of all
passengers, t