captain had a wonderful self-command. You couldn't have guessed
anything from his face. Well, it was perhaps more thoughtful than
usual. And indeed this was something to think about. But I couldn't
think steadily. My brain would give a sort of jerk and then go dead
again. I had lost all notion of time, and I might have been looking at
the captain for days and months for all I knew before I heard him
whisper to me fiercely: `Not a word!' This jerked me out of that trance
I was in and I said `No! No! I didn't mean even you.'"

"I wanted to explain my conduct, my intentions, but I read in his eyes
that he understood me and I was only too glad to leave off. And there
we were looking at each other, dumb, brought up short by the question
`What next?'

"I thought Captain Anthony was a man of iron till I saw him suddenly
fling his head to the right and to the left fiercely, like a wild animal
at bay not knowing which way to break out..."

"Truly," commented Marlow, "brought to bay was not a bad comparison; a
better one than Mr Powell was aware of. At that moment the appearance
of Flora could not but bring the tension to the breaking point. She
came out in all innocence but not without vague dread. Anthony's
exclamation on first seeing Powell had reached her in her cabin, where,
it seems, she was brushing her hair. She had heard the very words.
`What are you doing here?' And the unwonted loudness of the voice--his
voice--breaking the habitual stillness of that hour would have startled
a person having much less reason to be constantly apprehensive, than the
captive of Anthony's masterful generosity. She had no means to guess to
whom the question was addressed and it echoed in her heart, as Anthony's
voice always did. Followed complete silence. She waited, anxious,
expectant, till she could stand the strain no longer, and with the weary
mental appeal of the overburdened. `My God! What is it now?' she
opened the door of her room and looked into the saloon. Her first
glance fell on Powell. For a moment, seeing only the second officer
with Anthony, she felt relieved and made as if to draw back; but her
sharpened perception detected something suspicious in their attitudes,
and she came forward slowly.

"I was the first to see Mrs Anthony," related Powell, "because I was
facing aft. The captain, noticing my eyes, looked quickly over his
shoulder and at once put his finger to his lips to caution me. As if I