ght only, that of escape.

Lanyard entertained for a moment a vivid imaginary picture of the scene
in the saloon when Phinuit had surprised the Apache in the act of
strangling Monk; a picture that Phinuit subsequently confirmed
substantially in every detail....

One saw the garroter creeping through the blackness of the saloon from
his hiding place, forward in the cabin of the chief engineer;
stationing himself at the door to Monk's quarters, with his chosen
weapon, that deadly handkerchief of his trade, ready for the throat of
the Lone Wolf when he should emerge, in accordance with his agreement
with Mr. Mussey, the spoils of the captain's safe in his hands. Then
one saw Monk, alarmed by the sudden failure of the lights, hurrying out
to return to the bridge, the pantherish spring upon the victim's back,
the swift, dextrous noosing of the handkerchief about his windpipe, the
merciless tightening of it--all abruptly illuminated by the white glare
of Phinuit's electric torch. And then the truncated crimson of the
first pistol flash, the frantic effort to escape, the hunting of that
gross shape of flesh by the beam of light and the bullets as Popinot
doubled and twisted round the saloon like a rat in a pit, the last mad
plunge for the companionway, the flight up its steps that had by the
narrowest margin failed to save him...

Phinuit and Liane Delorme were too busy to heed; quietly Lanyard
slipped the pistol into a pocket and got to his feet. Then Swain came
charging down the steps to find out what all the row was about, and to
report--which he did as soon as Monk was sufficiently recovered to
understand--those outrageous and darkly mysterious assaults upon the
helmsman and Mr. Collison. Both men, he stated, were unfit for further
duty that night, though neither (Lanyard was happy to learn) had
suffered any permanent injury.

But what--in the name of insanity!--could have inspired such a
meaningless atrocity? What could its perpetrator have hoped to gain?
What--!

Monk, stretched out upon a leather couch in his sitting-room, levelled
eyebrows of suspicion at Lanyard, who countered with a guilelessness so
perfect as to make it appear that he did not even comprehend the
insinuation.

"If I may offer a suggestion..." he said with becoming diffidence.

"Well?" Monk demanded with a snap, despite his languors. "What's on
your mind?"

"It would seem to a benevolent neutral like myself... You understand I
was in my dec