"Lieutenant
Max Doran, --th Cavalry, Fort Ellsworth," the woman would have rung for
a steward, and the error would somehow have been adjusted.

Four or five minutes passed, and silence reigned in the berth overhead.
Max sat up cautiously, lest his bunk should squeak, and had begun still
more cautiously to emerge from it, when there came a sudden vicious
lurch of the ship. He was flung out, but seized the berth-curtain, as
the _General Morel_ awkwardly wallowed, and staggered to his feet, just
in time to save the occupant of the upper berth from flying across the
room. With a cry, she fell on to his shoulder, and he held her up with
one hand, still grasping the curtain with the other. The long plait of
hair and a smooth bare arm were round his neck. A face was close to his,
and he could feel warm, quick breaths on his cheek.

"Don't be frightened," he heard himself soothe her with deceitful calm.
"It'll be all right in a minute. I won't let you fall."

Even as he spoke, it occurred to Max that possibly she didn't understand
English. The thought had hardly time to pass through his mind, however,
when she answered him in English in a shocked whisper, trying vainly to
draw away:

"But--it's a man!--in my cabin!"

"I'm awfully sorry," said Max. "There's been some mistake. Better let me
hold you a few seconds more, till the ship's steadier. Then I'll lift
you down to the lower berth. You see, I thought it was my cabin."

"Oh," she exclaimed; and he felt a quiver run through the bare arm. Her
hair, which showered over his face and twined intricately round his
neck, had a faint, flowery perfume. "As soon as I get you down, and make
you comfortable, I'll go," he hurried on. "There, now, I think things
are quieting for the moment. We must have had two waves following one
another quicker than the rest. Let go your hold on the berth, and I'll
take you out."

He felt her relax obediently; and slipping one arm under her shoulder,
the other under her knees, he lifted a burden which proved to be light,
from the upper berth, to bestow it in safety, far back against the wall
in the bunk underneath.

"Oh, thank you," was breathed out with a sigh of relief. "You're very
kind--and so strong! But I feel dreadfully ill. I hope I'm not going to
faint."

"I'll get you some brandy," said Max, bethinking himself of a certain
silver flask in his suitcase, a prize as it happened, won as an amateur
of _la boxe_.

To his horror she made