nst the wall of
his cabin. He barely recognized the clean-shaven, clear-eyed, broad
shouldered youth he saw there as the rough, salty skipper of the
schooner _Charming Lass_. He wondered with a chuckle what Pete
Ellinwood would say if he could see him.

"And now, sir, if you're ready, just come with me, sir. Dinner is at
seven, and it is now a quarter to the hour."

Stunned by the wonders already experienced, and vaguely hoping that
the dream would last forever, Code followed the bewhiskered valet down
a narrow passage carpeted with a stuff so thick that it permitted no
sound.

Martin passed several doors--the passage was lighted by small
electrics--and finally paused before one on the right-hand side. Here
he knocked, and apparently receiving an answer, peered into the room
for a moment. Withdrawing his head, he swung the door open and turned
to Schofield.

"Go right in, sir," he said, and Code, eager for new wonders, stepped
past him.

The room was a small sitting-room, lighted softly by inverted
bowl-shaped globes of glass so colored as to bring out the full value
of the pink velours and satin brocades with which the room was hung
and the furniture covered.

For a moment he stared without seeing anything, and then a slight
rustling in a far corner diverted his attention. He looked sharply and
saw a woman rise from a lounge and come toward him with outstretched
hands.

She was Elsa Mallaby!

CHAPTER XXIV

THE SIREN

He saw the glad smile on her lips, the light in her great, lustrous,
dark eyes, and the beauty of her faultless body, and yet they all
faded to nothing beside the astounding and inexplicable fact that she
was in the mystery schooner.

"You here!" he gasped, taking her hands in his big rough ones and
gripping them tight. The impulse to draw her to him in an embrace was
almost irresistible, for not only was she lovely in the extreme, but
she was from Freekirk Head and home, and his soul had been starved
with loneliness and the ceaseless repetition of his own thoughts.

"Yes," she replied in her gentle voice, "I am here. You are
surprised?"

"That hardly expresses it," he returned. "So many things have happened
to-day that I expect anything now."

"Come, let us go in," she said, and led him through a doorway that
connected with an adjoining room. In the center of it was a small
table laid with linen and furnished with glittering silver and glass.
"Are you hungry?" she asked.

"