isappeared from, the field of his spy-glasses, the captain invariably
declared that he had suddenly been beset by a paralysed feeling in his
feet, and rubbed the glasses, and began to search again. He was on the
point of leaving the bridge, since he could not get another view of that
strange little flyspeck on the ocean and decided it was an allusion, when
it occurred to him that for reasons of general security he had better
scan the entire circle of the horizon. This time he looked backwards.
Instantly he had the _Hamburg_ stopped and turned, because he had sighted
the boat a second time and it was now decidedly nearer. The first mate,
too, on looking through the glasses saw it was a boat and that it
contained passengers. Wendler was called on deck. When he peered through
the glass, he distinguished white cloths waving.

"When my boys found out what was doing," said Captain Butor, "they began
to carry on like lunatics. I had to use some of my sea-lingo on them.
They wanted to dive over the railing into the sea, and swim to the boat."

* * * * *

Ingigerd was lying stretched out in her comfortable steamer chair, and
Frederick was sitting on a camp-stool in front of her. On the _Roland_,
when the sense of danger began to thicken, a feeling of ownership in
regard to Ingigerd had taken hold of Frederick and never left him. Doctor
Wilhelm and, as a result of his influence, everybody on the _Hamburg_
looked upon Frederick as the romantic rescuer and lover of the little
dancer. All were conscious of witnessing the development of a romance
especially sanctioned by Divine Providence, and looked on with interest
and respect. Ingigerd's attitude to Frederick was that of tacit docility,
as if she, the obedient ward, recognised in him her natural guardian.

The air was fresh, the motion of the sea was easy. Suddenly, after a long
spell of silence, which Frederick had imposed upon her, Ingigerd asked:

"Was it really nothing but chance that brought us together on the
_Roland_?"

"There is no such thing as chance, or, rather, everything is chance,
Ingigerd," was his evasive answer.

Ingigerd was not satisfied, and did not desist until she learned the
causes and circumstances that had led Frederick to board the unfortunate
_Roland_ at Southampton.

"So for my sake," she said, "you came within a hair's breadth of losing
your life. Instead, you saved my life."

This brief conversation cemented the