nal, in your hands, Miss
Marion.

"I drugged the man in charge of the yacht. Then I chained him to the
engine. When he aroused from his stupor, I had everything ready for the
yacht's sailing. I forced the man to answer the bells as given from the
bridge, under penalty of death. The most of the time I kept you under
the influence of my drug. Much of the trip is a blank to me. Why we were
not swallowed up in the great waters of the Atlantic, I cannot
understand. It must have been, Miss Marion, that God stretched out His
Arm to save you.... At the time the yacht struck and was destroyed, I
was a raving maniac.

"Then, somehow, I once again became sane. That was while I watched an
old fisherman, who rescued you from the pounding seas.

"At last, I remembered the man chained to the engine. It was fear of him
that made me flee. When the kindly old fisherman went in search of a
physician for your sake, I was wild with the desire of flight. I could
see always the accusing eyes of that man there in the depths of the sea,
staring up at me--his murderer!... So, I took you and fled with you in
the tender."

Ethel looked at the man, whom she had known and trusted as the family
physician, with widened eyes of horror. This trusted friend, by his own
avowal, was not only thief and kidnapper--he was a murderer!

CHAPTER XXI

SEALED ORDERS

Doctor Garnet, seeing the effect made upon the girl by the conclusion of
the story, did not approach her or try to relieve her, as had been his
wont. At the moment he felt himself too low, too despicable, to lay his
hands on this fair girl, even as a physician. Moreover, he knew that it
would not be long ere she recovered her calm. Indeed, only a few minutes
elapsed before Ethel had passed through the crisis of her emotion. Her
mind clear again, she stared at the man with an unconcealed repugnance,
under which he cringed. She thought with dismay of the dreadful thing
Doctor Garnet had done. She even wondered now with new distress as to
what her friends must have thought concerning her secret departure. It
seemed to her that the truth was too fantastic a thing to be credited by
the world at large. It would scoff at this explanation of a young girl's
sailing for days with a man, practically alone, on her own yacht. She
shuddered at thought of the slanders sure to be her portion. How her
father would grieve over this disgrace of his daughter! How
Roy----Appalled, she thrust the terrifyin