appened."

Afterwards, when he came to think it all over, it struck Browne as a
remarkable fact that on this occasion her first thought was not for her
father, as was her usual custom, but for himself. What did this mean?
Had she been disappointed in her parent, as he had half-expected she
would be? Her quick womanly intuition must have told her what was
passing in his mind, for her face suddenly flushed scarlet, and,
clenching her hands together, she said slowly and deliberately, as if
the question were being wrung from her, and she were repeating
something she had no desire to say:--

"But if it is a Russian man-o'-war, what will become of my poor father?"

"We are going to hide him," returned Browne. "MacAndrew has taken him
below to a certain place where he will be quite safe. He will remain
there, while the ship is in sight, and rejoin us when she has
disappeared again. Believe me, dear, they shall not get him, whatever
happens."

There was a little pause, and then Katherine said, as if she were
following up the conversation:--

"It would be too cruel if he were to be captured, just as he has got
away."

"He shall not be captured; never fear," continued Browne. "And now,
dear, you had better go and tell Madame Bernstein all that has
happened. I think you had better both remain in your cabins for the
present. When the Russian officer arrives, if all turns out as I am
very much afraid it will, I will ask you to dress and come on deck, for
they will ask to be allowed to search your cabins for a certainty."

"I will go to Madame at once," she answered; "but I think----"

She was about to say more when a footstep sounded upon the
companion-ladder, and a moment later Jimmy Foote, his face surcharged
with excitement, looked down upon them.

"For heaven's sake, Browne," he cried, as he held on to the brass
hand-rail, "come up to the smoking-room at once! There is not a moment
to lose."

"What on earth has happened?" Browne inquired, as he left Katherine's
side and bounded up the ladder.

"Just what I suspected," said Jimmy. "I never could have believed such
villainy could be possible."

Having reached the deck, they hastened towards the smoking-room. As he
did so, Browne glanced out to sea, and noticed that the man-o'-war was
now so close that her hull could plainly be distinguished. At most she
could not be more than eight or nine miles away.

CHAPTER XXVIII

It was a curious sight tha