rs."

I peered out of the door, but the screen of sea fog shut off the view;
it was as if I gazed at a blank wall, and the cold was intense.

"What do you guess has happened?" I asked Barraclough.

"He's got her in a narrow gut somewhere and is frightened. I've only
been through here twice in my life, and in both cases it was broad
daylight. This is where they melt fogs for the world. Oh, hang it,
let's have the door shut."

He shut it as he spoke, and I looked round. The Prince sat on a sofa
and waited. Lane blew on his fingers and whistled. Ellison stood, the
respectful seaman as ever.

"They've been kind about the electric light," observed Barraclough,
with a grin at me.

I said nothing, for there was nothing I could rejoin in the
circumstances. I retraced my way to the door and opened it.

"Oh! confound it all!" roared Barraclough, as the fog rolled in. "Don't
you see the ladies are here?"

I turned back, but only Princess Alix was visible. She moved white and
tall under the lights. I shut the door again.

"Why has the yacht stopped, Frederic?" she asked her brother.

"The fog," he answered, with a gesture towards the door.

She looked towards us, her upper lip lifted in a charming excitement
and the colour flying in her cheeks. Then she came forward swiftly,
and, even as she did so, the _Sea Queen_ heeled over, rolling and
trembling from her copper sheathing upwards. The shock sent me against
the wall, and Barraclough also staggered. Princess Alix in her flight
was precipitated forward and ran upon me. She put up her hands
instinctively to save herself, but in the rush she gathered momentum,
and swung across the dozen paces between where she had been and the
door with the speed of an arrow discharged in the air. Her palms struck
the woodwork with a resounding slap, but the full force of her sweet
body fell on me. For one instant I held her in my arms quite closely,
her breath upon my face.

"Are you hurt, Princess?" I gasped.

"Oh! my hands!" she cried pitifully, and then ceased suddenly. She
withdrew a little. "They sting," she said, also breathlessly. "But
you--you must be injured."

"I am a little out of breath," I answered, "but I was never better in
my life." I cannot say why I blurted this forth. Somehow I was beyond
myself.

"She has struck!" cried Barraclough.

The _Sea Queen_ righted herself slowly.

"I can't stand this," I said. "I'm going to find out."

I glanced at the Princess,