ossed the corridor successfully, and then the yacht heeled and I
was almost precipitated to the other end of it. She was being knocked
about like a tin pot in a gale. I seized a door-handle and hung on, and
when the vessel recovered somewhat I twisted it, but it did not give.
The _boudoir_ must be farther on.

I crept on by means of the brass railing and at last reached a door
which gave. I opened it and called out:

"Princess! Princess!"

Blackness filled the room. I could hear and see nothing human. I
entered, and the door swung to behind with a clang.

"Princess!" I shouted, but I could hear no answer.

I groped in the darkness with both hands, and then I touched an arm! I
seized it, and drew the owner to me gently.

"Princess!" I called, and this time an answer reached me through the
raging elements:

"It is I."

"Thank God, you're safe. Do not be alarmed," I said, speaking into her
ear. "The yacht's caught in a hurricane, but----"

There fell at that instant a resounding crash far above the noise of
the storm, and we were thrown headlong against the outer wall of the
_boudoir_. I knew that only, and then I knew no more.

CHAPTER XVIII

AT DEAD OF NIGHT

Consciousness flowed back upon me slowly, and I emerged in pain and in
intense bewilderment from my swoon. The first sound that came to me in
my awakening was the terrific roar of the water against the side of the
yacht, the next a woman's scream. Recalling now the incidents exactly
preceding my fall, I stirred and endeavoured to sit up, and then I was
aware of being pinned down by a weight. It was, as will be remembered,
pitch dark, but I put out my hand and felt the beating of a heart.
There was also unmistakably a woman's bodice under my fingers. It was
Princess Alix, who had fallen with me.

But what had happened? And what noise was screaming through the night,
even above all that awful tumult of waste water and wild wind? I
answered the second query first. It was Mademoiselle. Well, she could
wait. My first concern must be for the Princess, who lay upon me a dead
weight, but, as I knew, a living, breathing body. I carefully
extricated myself and raised her. The yacht was stooping at an angle,
and I was forced back against the wall with my burden. If it had been
only light and I had known which way to move! I laid the Princess on
the couch, which I discovered by groping, and tried to open the door.
It was jammed. Then it dawned upon me t