operate" in its ports. Only to him
could she reveal the secret.

Ulysses was more indignant than ever at this confidence.

"Clear out!" he said in a wrathful voice. "I don't want to know
anything about you.... Your affairs do not interest me at all. I do not
wish to know them.... Get out of here! What are you plaguing me for?"

But she did not appear disposed to comply with his orders. Instead of
departing, she dropped wearily down on one of the divans of the
stateroom.

"I have come," she said, "to beg you to save me. I ask it for the last
time.... I'm going to die; I suspect that my end is very near if you
will not hold out a helping hand; I foresee the vengeance of my own
people.... Guard me, Ulysses! Do not make me go back ashore; I am
afraid.... So safe I shall feel here at your side!..."

Fear, sure enough, was reflected in her eyes as she recalled the last
months of her life in Barcelona.

"The doctor is my enemy.... She who protected me so in other times
abandons me now like an old shoe that it is necessary to get rid of. I
am positive that her superior officers have condemned me...."

She shuddered on remembering the doctor's wrath when on her return from
one of her trips she learned of the death of her faithful Karl. To her,
Captain Ferragut was a species of invulnerable and victorious demon who
was escaping all dangers and murdering the servants of a good cause.
First von Kramer; now Karl.... As it was necessary for her to vent her
wrath on somebody, she had made Freya responsible for all her
misfortunes. Through her she had known the captain, and had mixed him
up in the affairs of the "service."

Thirst for vengeance made the imposing dame smile with a ferocious
expression. The Spanish sailor was doomed by the Highest Command.
Precise orders had been given out against him. "As to his
accomplices!..." Freya was figuring undoubtedly among these accomplices
for having dared to defend Ferragut, for remembering the tragic event
of his son, for having refused to join the chorus desiring his
extermination.

Weeks afterwards the doctor again became as smiling and as amiable as
in other times. "My dear girl, it is agreed that you should take a trip
to France. We need there an agent who will keep us informed of the
traffic of the ports, of the goings and comings of the vessels in order
that our submersibles may know where to await them. The naval officials
are very gallant, and a beautiful woman will be abl