that mysteries were suspicious, that
honest people seldom had need of secrecy, that idiots who, like me,
consented to act blindfold would probably repent their blindness
in sackcloth and ashes before long. But what use were these sage
reflections? I had given my word to her. I was in for the consequences,
however unpleasant they proved.

Without further mental parley I went down to my cabin, where I routed
out from among my traps a bronze paper-weight as heavy as lead. Wrapping
the mysterious sheet about it, I brought the package back on deck. There
was not a soul in sight; it was a propitious hour.

To right and to left the coast lights were slipping past, making golden
paths on the black water as our tug pulled us out to sea. The reservists
down below were singing "_Va fuori, o stranier_!" I dropped my package
overboard, watched it vanish, and turned to behold the sphinx-like
Van Blarcom, sprung up as if by magic, regarding me placidly from the
shelter of the smoking-room door.

CHAPTER V

MR. VAN BLARCOM. U. S. A.

For a trip that had begun with such rich promise of the unusual, my
voyage on the _Re d'Italia_ proved a gratifying anticlimax during its
first few days. The weather was bad. We plowed forward monotonously,
flagless, running between dark-gray water and a lowering, leaden sky.
Screws throbbed, timbers creaked, and dishes crashed as the Gulf Stream
took us, and great waves reared themselves round us like myriads of
threatening Alps.

After that first night the girl kept discreetly to her stateroom. I was
relieved; but I thought of her a good deal. I had little else to do.
Pacing a drunken deck and smoking, I wove unsatisfactory theories,
asking myself what was her need of secrecy, what the item she wanted
hidden, what the errand that had made her sail on the vessel a week
after the spectacular torpedoing of a sister-ship? Did she know this Van
Blarcom or did she merely dread any notice? And above all, who was the
man and had he been watching when I tossed that wretched extra across
the rail?

I saw something of him, of course, as time went on. Naturally we four
bold spirits, the ubiquitous McGuntrie, Van Blarcom, the young reservist
Pietro Ricci,--a very good sort of fellow,--and I were herded together
beyond escape. Also, a foursome at bridge seemed divinely indicated by
our number, and to avert a sheer paralysis of ennui we formed the habit
of winning each other's money at that game.

As we