said I. "Why, what's this, man?"

"I'm a bit upset," he said, regaining some control of himself. "I think
the sea-sickness has upset me. But I'm all right." He lay on his face,
and was silent. And so (for I was due now in the corridor) I left him.
As I turned away, I could have sworn I heard the key click in the door.
He had locked himself in again.

Lane was on duty at the farther end of the corridor, and I had the door
near the entrance connecting with the music balcony. Two electric
lights shed a faint glow through the length and breadth of the
corridor, and over all was silence. As I sat in my chair, fingering my
revolver, my thoughts turned over the situation helplessly, and swung
round finally to the problem of Barraclough and Mademoiselle. The
Princess and I had guessed what was forward, and Lane also had an
inkling. Only the Prince was ignorant of the signal flirtation which
was in progress under his nose. I suppose such a woman could not remain
without victims. It did not suffice for her that she had captured a
prince of the blood, had dislocated the policy of a kingdom, and had
ruined a man's life. She must have other trophies of her beauty, and
Barraclough was one. I was sorry for him, though I cannot say that I
liked him. The dull, unimaginative and wholesome Briton had toppled
over before the sensuous arts of the French beauty. His anxiety was for
her. He had not shown himself timorous as to the result before.
Doubtless she had infected him with her fears. Possibly, even, it was
at the lady's suggestion that he had made advances to Holgate.

Suddenly my thoughts were diverted by a slight noise, and, looking
round, I saw Lane advancing swiftly towards me.

"I say, Phillimore," he said in a hoarse whisper, "I've lost the key."

"Key!" I echoed. "What key?" For I did not at once take in his meaning.

"Why, man, the purser's key--the key of the strong room," he said
impatiently.

I gazed in silence at him. "But you must have left it below," I said at
last.

"Not I," he answered emphatically. "I'm no juggins. They're always on
me. I go to bed in them, so to speak. See here." He pulled a ring of
keys from his pocket. "This is how I keep 'em--on my double chain. They
don't leave me save at nights when I undress. Well, it's gone, and I'm
damned if I know when it went or how it went."

He gazed, frowning deeply at his bunch.

"That's odd," I commented.

"It puts me in a hole," said he. "How the mischief