ter. She hoped not; it
was so comfortable, and she was, oh, so sleepy! She turned on her
side. Then suddenly she started. Certainly she was lying on nothing
that would remotely suggest a bed. Sleepily she tried to open her
eyes, but the long lashes were glued together by the heavy salt water.

Arousing still further, she rubbed them open. And then as a heaving,
littered deck, with patches of blue sea showing through the shattered
rail bore upon her vision, a realizing sense of the situation and the
tragic events leading to it came to her.

For a moment she lay still, shuddering. Her head still rested upon
Dan's arm. She knew it, but she was afraid to arise. Somehow that arm
seemed the only thing which assured her she was in a living world.
Even in the brilliant morning sunlight the vessel, soughing, creaking,
groaning, as it moved slouchily over the waters impressed her as the
shape of terror. From the deck little mist spirals arose like spirits
of the men who had deserted the ship. And hovering all about was the
gray, sordid reek of desolation, eerie, awe-inspiring.

And yet the Captain must not find her thus. Slowly she withdrew her
head. She hated to awaken him. Yet she felt she must hear his voice,
for the all-pervading loneliness was unbearable. She sat up and shook
him gently by the shoulder. It was as though she had applied an
electric shock. With a muffled exclamation he lifted himself by his
elbow, and the next instant he was on his feet.

"Miss Howland!" he exclaimed. The sound of his voice echoed hollow
along the deck, but it was the most joyous sound Virginia had ever
heard. Leaning down, he assisted her to her feet. Their eyes met, and
they gazed at each other, wondering, uncertain. Alone of all the
world, these two, in the midst of a vast, lonely domain where hidden
terrors lurk, where elements unharness their might and work their harm
unchecked, where wind and wave whisper of murderous deeds, where the
rime of dead ages is still fresh. It was all too big for minds to
encompass, for their senses to grasp.

A great sob shook the girl.

"Will--will you please go away--a moment? I think I am going to cry,"
she stammered. She turned from him hurriedly and walked toward the
rail. She tottered as though about to fall. Dan sprang to her side
and placed his hand lightly on her arm. The touch seemed to strengthen
her. With a convulsive effort she gained control of herself, and as