in."

"Aiee?" ejaculated Evanthia, sitting up and fixing her burning amber
eyes on the frightened and hypnotized creature. "And didst thou hear
nothing else? Aidin! Tchk!"

"I do not know, Madama," he quavered. "Unless there is a port called
Bairakli."

Evanthia showed her teeth in a brilliant smile and patted the youth's
arm.

"My servant you shall be," she chuckled. "No, there is no port called
Bairakli, but it is near to a city you and I will find good. Shalt live
at Bairakli, Amos! Tck--tck! What a fool I was. Oh! Caro! _Oh mein
lieber Mann!_" And she sang sweetly a few notes of a song.

The young man stared at her in stupefaction.

"Go," she said, pushing him with a characteristic gesture, at once
brusque and charming. "You need have no fear. Your fortune is made."

* * * * *

A few minutes past six Captain Rannie climbed the bridge ladder and
examined the compass without addressing his chief officer, bending over
it with an exaggerated solicitude. Apparently satisfied, he went into
the chart room and immediately pushed the ruler from its significant
position, pointing into the interior of Asia Minor. There was an
indefinable nervous bounce about him which indicated a highly exalted
state of mind. He seemed, Mr. Spokesly imagined, to be assuming
truculence to cover timidity. He probably knew that his insistence on
keeping the course had aroused conjecture, and the ruler, lying as it
did on the chart, confirmed the idea. Yet he did not speak. Funking, Mr.
Spokesly decided, obstinately remaining close to the dodger and staring
straight ahead--towards Asia Minor. If the Old Man thought he was going
to get away with it ... he cleared his throat and remarked:

"About time to change the course for Phyros, sir?"

And to his surprise Mr. Spokesly, in the midst of his highly complex
cogitations, found himself listening to a jaunty and characteristic
monologue which touched upon--among other things--the one rule which
Captain Rannie insisted was the _sine qua non_ of a good officer, that
he should accept the commander's orders without comments. Otherwise, how
could discipline be maintained? As to the course, he, Captain Rannie,
would attend to that immediately. And while he appreciated it, of
course, there was no real need for Mr. Spokesly to remain on the bridge
after he had been relieved.

Mr. Spokesly, still looking ahead, wanted to say sarcastically, "Is that
so?" but he was t