e and four and the mystery that hung about them was
almost perceptible. Not one was willing to face the excited, buoyant
Brewster without help; they found strength and security in
companionship.

Peggy was the one rebel against the conspiracy, and yet she knew that
the others were justified in the step they proposed to take. She
reluctantly joined them in the end, but felt that she was the darkest
traitor in the crowd. Forgetting her own distress over the way in which
Monty was squandering his fortune, she stood out the one defender of
his rights until the end and then admitted tearfully to Mrs. DeMille
that she had been "quite unreasonable" in doing so.

Alone in her stateroom after signing the agreement, she wondered what
he would think of her. She owed him so much that she at least should
have stood by him. She felt that he would be conscious of this? How
could she have turned against him? He would not understand--of course
he would never understand. And he would hate her with the others--more
than the others. It was all a wretched muddle and she could not see her
way out of it.

Monty found his guests very difficult. They listened to his plans with
but little interest, and he could not but see that they were
uncomfortable. The situation was new to their experience, and they were
under a strain. "They mope around like a lot of pouting boys and
girls," he growled to himself. "But it's the North Cape now in spite of
everything. I don't care if the whole crowd deserts me, my mind is made
up."

Try as he would, he could not see Peggy alone. He had much that he
wanted to say to her and he hungered for the consolation her approval
would bring him, but she clung to Pettingill with a tenacity that was
discouraging. The old feeling of jealousy that was connected with Como
again disturbed him.

"She thinks that I am a hopeless, brainless idiot," he said to himself.
"And I don't blame her, either."

Just before nightfall he noticed that his friends were assembling in
the bow. As he started to join the group "Subway" Smith and DeMille
advanced to meet him. Some of the others were smiling a little
sheepishly, but the two men were pictures of solemnity and decision.

"Monty," said DeMille steadily, "we have been conspiring against you
and have decided that we sail for New York to-morrow morning."

Brewster stopped short and the expression on his face was one they
never could forget. Bewilderment, uncertainty and pain suc