minutes I had watched
her talking earnestly with the engineer, and now, with a sign for
silence, I drew her out of earshot of the helmsman. Her face was white
and set; her large eyes, larger than usual what of the purpose in them,
looked penetratingly into mine. I felt rather timid and apprehensive,
for she had come to search Humphrey Van Weyden's soul, and Humphrey Van
Weyden had nothing of which to be particularly proud since his advent on
the _Ghost_.

We walked to the break of the poop, where she turned and faced me. I
glanced around to see that no one was within hearing distance.

"What is it?" I asked gently; but the expression of determination on her
face did not relax.

"I can readily understand," she began, "that this morning's affair was
largely an accident; but I have been talking with Mr. Haskins. He tells
me that the day we were rescued, even while I was in the cabin, two men
were drowned, deliberately drowned--murdered."

There was a query in her voice, and she faced me accusingly, as though I
were guilty of the deed, or at least a party to it.

"The information is quite correct," I answered. "The two men were
murdered."

"And you permitted it!" she cried.

"I was unable to prevent it, is a better way of phrasing it," I replied,
still gently.

"But you tried to prevent it?" There was an emphasis on the "tried," and
a pleading little note in her voice.

"Oh, but you didn't," she hurried on, divining my answer. "But why
didn't you?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "You must remember, Miss Brewster, that you are
a new inhabitant of this little world, and that you do not yet understand
the laws which operate within it. You bring with you certain fine
conceptions of humanity, manhood, conduct, and such things; but here you
will find them misconceptions. I have found it so," I added, with an
involuntary sigh.

She shook her head incredulously.

"What would you advise, then?" I asked. "That I should take a knife, or
a gun, or an axe, and kill this man?"

She half started back.

"No, not that!"

"Then what should I do? Kill myself?"

"You speak in purely materialistic terms," she objected. "There is such
a thing as moral courage, and moral courage is never without effect."

"Ah," I smiled, "you advise me to kill neither him nor myself, but to let
him kill me." I held up my hand as she was about to speak. "For moral
courage is a worthless asset on this little floating world. Leach,