ave been
badly wounded, or he would be--"

"The Arabs have a saying, my dear fellow," dryly answered the Master,
"that one ear is worth ten thousand tongues. Ponder it well!"

The major's look of astonishment annoyed the Master, even while it
hurt him. He took scant pleasure in rebuffing this old friend; but
certainly "Captain Alden" would not bear discussing. Feeling himself
in a kind of _impasse_ regarding Alden, and fearing some telltale
expression in his eyes, the Master swung up his binoculars and once
more swept the cloud-horizons from northeast to southeast.

"We ought to be sighting some of the attackers, before long," judged
he. "I'm rather curious to see them--to see flies attacking an eagle.
I haven't had a real chance of testing out the neutralizers. Their
operation, in actual practice, ought to be interesting."

He tried to speak coldly, impersonally; but he well realized a certain
strained quality in his voice. Even now, in the hour of impending
attack, his thoughts could not remain wholly fixed on the enemy
which--so the wireless informed him--lay only a little beyond the
haze-enshrouded, burning rim of cloudland.

Despite every effort of the will, he kept mentally reverting to
the midships port stateroom containing the woman. He could not keep
himself from wondering how she was getting on. Her wound, he hoped--he
felt confident--could not be serious.

Had it been, of course, the woman would have asked some further aid.
And since the moment when he had left her, no word had come to him.
More than once, temptation had whispered: "Go to her! She has deceived
you, and you are master here. But, above all, you are a man!"

Twice he had all but yielded to this inner voice. But he had not
yielded. Another and a sterner voice had said: "She is an interloper.
She has no rights. Why give her another thought?"

This voice had prevailed. The Master had told himself only a few hours
more remained, at all events, before the woman should be cast off and
abandoned in whatever strange land might befall--probably Morocco, or
it might be the Spanish colony of Rio de Oro on the western fringes
of the Sahara. After that, what responsibility for her safety or her
welfare would be his? Why, he had none, even now!

"But, man," the small voice insinuated, "she came to you on an errand
of mercy, to nurse and care for such as might fall ill or be wounded.
It was not wholly the desire for adventure that led her to deceive