h it before her resolution failed.
"My father has perfected an invention--oh, a great invention--which he
fears some one may try to steal from him. He has many enemies who would
stop at nothing to gain possession of it. Even on this boat, perhaps,
there are some of them--he does not know; there is no way that he can
tell; but he is very anxious. For eight years he laboured at this
invention, and at last it is finished. But if some one should steal his
model, all this would be for nothing--for worse than nothing. It is not
a money loss he fears--this invention will not bring him money--but his
whole life would be wrecked--all his plans, all his hopes. To-day he
agreed with me that this model should be destroyed; he put it in my hand
and he expected me to drop it into the sea. But I was afraid to do that;
perhaps he could not make another. It is so complicated, so delicate,
perhaps he would go wrong. So I thought and thought--I thought if I had
a friend whom I could trust absolutely, whom no one would suspect of
possessing it, I might entrust it to him...."

Dan's pressure on her hand grew stronger.

"Give it to me," he said.

Kasia gazed into his eyes for a moment, as though reading his very soul;
then her other hand came forward under her cloak and touched his. He
felt that it held a package; and he took it quickly and slipped it into
the pocket of his coat.

"Now it is safe," he said. "You are not to worry about it any more."

She breathed a deep sigh of relief.

"But you must make me two promises," she said.

"What are they?"

"You must permit no one, under any circumstances, to open that package."

"I promise."

"Rather than do that, rather than permit any one to see it, you must
destroy it--throw it overboard, stamp upon it--destroy it in some way."

"I promise."

"No matter who may be trying to get it--the Captain of this ship, an
officer of the police--it must make no difference."

"I promise."

She leaned back against the seat, suddenly relaxed as from a great
strain, and closed her eyes. But she did not draw her hand away. Then
she opened her eyes and looked at him, and her lips were quivering. An
immense longing to take her in his arms, to stoop and kiss those lips,
to hold her close to him, rushed through the man's veins. But he held
himself back. To do that would be base; to do that would be asking
payment! He could not do that. But sometime, sometime....

She saw the change in his face, sa