n rose, weakly enough,
and followed him. As the door opened and closed again, the engines
hummed louder, then sank again to their dull murmur. Bohannan remained
with the doctor.

"Well, faith, can you beat that?" exclaimed the major. "There's an
Ethiopian in the woodpile, sure enough. Something strange, here, I'm
thinking! Something damned strange here!"

"Is there anything here that _isn't_?" asked Lombardo, with an odd
laugh, as he turned back to the cot where lay the dying New Zealander.

Alone in his cabin with Captain Alden, the Master faced the
insubordinate member of his crew with an expression of hard
implacability. The captain stood there determinedly confronting him.
His right hand held to the table for support. His left sleeve was
sodden with blood; the left arm, thrust into the breast of his coat,
was obviously numbed, paralyzed.

"Well, sir, what have you to say for yourself?" coldly demanded the
Master.

"I repeat that I cannot--and will not--submit myself to any medical
attention from any member of this expedition."

"This is dangerous ground you're treading!" the Master exclaimed. His
voice had deepened, grown ominous. "You understood perfectly well the
conditions of the undertaking--unquestioning obedience to my orders,
with life-and-death powers in my hands, to punish insubordination."

"I understand all that, sir," answered the captain. "I understand it
now. Nevertheless, I repeat my refusal to obey."

"By Allah! There must be some deep cause here!" ejaculated the Master,
his eyes smoldering. "I intend to work my will, but I am a man of
reason. You are entitled to a hearing state your objection, sir. Speak
up!"

The captain's answer was to raise his right hand and to loosen the
cords securing the celluloid mask. As the Master watched, steadying
his nerves against the shock of what he felt must be a nameless horror
underneath, Alden tore away the mask and threw it upon the table.

"Here is my reason, sir," said he very quietly, "for not permitting
Lombardo, or any other man here, to dress my wound."

"Good God!" exclaimed the Master, shaken clean out of his aplomb. The
shock he had expected had come to him, but in far other guise than
he had counted on. With clenched fists and widening eyes he peered at
Alden.

The face he now suddenly beheld, under the clear white light of the
cabin, was not the hideous, mangled wreck of humanity--The Kaiser's
Masterpiece--he had expected to see.

No