cterizes him, he directed me to go and
get a mop and bucket from the forecastle and remove the dark red stains
from the chair and deck. This he actually forced me to do, gloating over
my horror as I removed for him the traces of his cowardly crime. Then,
with his hand upon my shoulder, he said, 'Girl! Recollect that you keep
to-night's work secret. If not, you shall die a death more painful than
that dog has died--one in which you shall experience all the tortures of
the damned. Recollect, not a single word--or death! Now, go to your
cabin, and never pry into my affairs again.'

"I went back to my cabin as I was bid, and sat speechless in abject
horror. The fiendish actions of the man who was my guardian frightened
me. And yet I was utterly helpless. What could I do? Who in holy Russia
would hear me? Oberg was a power in the Empire; the Czar himself trusted
him. If I spoke, who would believe me; who would heed the words of a
defenseless girl whom he would at once declare to be hysterical? Thus I
waited alone in the darkness, watching the lights of the port gleaming
across the placid waters until nearly one o'clock, when the gay party
returned, and the Baron greeted them merrily as though nothing had
happened. But my heart was frozen within me by the recollection of the
awful crime that had been committed."

* * * * *

"Why! Now I remember!" cried Muriel, amazed. "I remember that night
quite well, how white you were when you came to my cabin and asked to be
allowed to sleep in my spare berth. You would tell me nothing, and only
said you were ill. None of us had any idea that such a terrible tragedy
had been enacted. But of course the Baron had arranged it all, for it
was at his instigation, I recollect, that the crew had been given
shore-leave. Mackintosh suggested that only half the crew should go,
but he declared that if Wilson alone were left it would be sufficient."

"I, too, recollect the affair quite well," Jack declared, tugging at his
mustache, utterly amazed at my love's strange story. It was a plain
statement of hard, astounding facts, and she now stood clinging to me,
looking eagerly into my eyes, reading every thought that passed through
my mind. "A great sensation was caused when the body was discovered. The
squadron was lying off Naples about a week after the _Iris_ had left,
and while we were there the body was washed up near Sorrento. At first
but little notice was taken