but of course I take that risk."

Coxeter, with a quick, unobtrusive movement, released Mrs. Archdale. He
turned and stared, not pleasantly, at the man who was making him so odd
an offer. Damn the fellow's impudence! "The life-saver is not for sale,"
he said shortly.

Nan had heard but little of the quick colloquy. She did not connect it
with the fact that the strong protecting arms which had been about her
were now withdrawn,--and the tears came into her eyes. She felt both in
a physical and in a spiritual sense suddenly alone. John Coxeter, the
one human being who ever attempted to place himself on a more intimate,
personal plane with her, happened, by a strange irony of fate, to be her
companion in this awful adventure. But even he had now turned away from
her....

Nay, that was not quite true. He was again looking down at her, and she
felt his hand groping for hers. As he found and clasped it, he made a
movement as if he wished again to draw her towards him. Gently she
resisted, and at once she felt that he responded to her feeling of
recoil, and Nan, with a confused sense of shame and anger, was now hurt
by his submission. Most men in his place would have made short work of
her resistance,--would have taken her, masterfully, into the shelter of
his arms.

There came a little stir among the people on the deck. Coxeter heard a
voice call out in would-be-cheery tones, "Now then, ladies! Please step
out--ladies and children only. Look sharp!" A sailor close by whispered
gruffly to his mate, "I'll stick to her anyhow. No crowded boats for me!
I expect she'll be a good hour settling--perhaps a bit longer."

As the first boat-load swung into the water, some of the people about
them gave a little cheer. Coxeter thought, but he will never be quite
sure, that in that cheer Nan joined. There was a delay of a minute; then
again the captain's voice rang out, this time in a sharper, more
peremptory tone, "Now, ladies, look sharp! Come along, please."

Coxeter unclasped Nan's hand--he did not know how tightly he had been
holding it. He loved her. God, how he loved her! And now he must send
her away--away into the shrouding fog--away, just as he had found her.
If what he had overheard were true, might he not be sending Nan to a
worse fate than that of staying to take the risk with him?

But the very man who had spoken so doubtfully of the boats just now came
forward. "You'd best hurry your lady forward, sir. There's no time