d he mounted this
ladder, and Nathaniel followed him, finding himself a moment later in a
small low room furnished with a bed. The councilor placed his candle on
a table close beside it and rubbed his hands until it seemed they must
burn.

"You will stay--eh, Nat?" he cried, bobbing his head. "Yes, you will
stay, and you will give me back the package for a day or two." He
retreated to the trap and slid down it as quickly as a rat. "Pleasant
dreams to you, Nat, and--O, wait a minute!" Captain Plum could hear him
pattering quickly over the floor below. In a moment he was back,
thrusting his white grimacing face through the trap and tossed something
upon the bed. "She left them last night, Nat. Pleasant dreams, pleasant
dreams," and he was gone.

Nathaniel turned to the bed and picked up a faded bunch of lilacs. Then
he sat down, loaded his pipe, and smoked until he could hardly see the
walls of his little room. From the moment of his landing on the island
he turned the events of the day over in his mind. Yet when he arrived at
the end of them he was no less mystified than when he began. Who was
Obadiah Price? Who was the girl that fate had so mysteriously associated
with his movements thus far? What was the plot in which he had
accidentally become involved? With tireless tenacity he hung to these
questions for hours. That there was a plot of some kind he had not the
least doubt. The councilor's strange actions, the oath, the package, and
above all the scene in the king's house convinced him of that. And he
was sure that Obadiah's night visitor--the girl with the lilacs--was
playing a vital part in it.

He plucked at the withered flowers which the old man had thrown him. He
could detect their sweet scent above the pungent fumes of tobacco and as
Obadiah's triumphant chuckle recurred to him, the gloating joy in his
eyes, the passionate tremble of his voice, a grim smile passed over his
face. The mystery was easy of solution--if he was willing to reason
along certain lines. But he was not willing. He had formed his own
picture of Strang's wife and it pleased him to keep it. At moments he
half conceded himself a fool, but that did not trouble him. The longer
he smoked the more his old confidence and his old recklessness returned
to him. He had enjoyed his adventure. The next day he would end it. He
would go openly into St. James and have done his business with Strang.
Then he would return to his ship. What had he, Captain