en for food to keep her body alive.

The distraught girl thought of the locked stateroom door, and was made
frantic by the fact that she was thus shut in, a prisoner. She stared
longingly at the small, round port-hole. She regarded that swinging
window of heavy plate glass with an anxiety of desire that thrilled
through every atom of her blood. She wondered: Could she by any chance
thrust her slender body through that narrow aperture? She even went so
far as to measure the width of the disc--comparing the space to her own
slender breadth of shoulders.

She thought that it might be possible for her to thrust her lithe form
through the meager opening. She believed that she could push her body
through the port-hole. She dared to hope that she might thus escape.
Down below was the runway used by the sailors. It seemed to her that the
matter of escape would be simple.

Her hunger urged Ethel to make the desperate attempt. She was sure that
could she once reach the runway she would be safe from detection on the
part of the one directing the course of the craft from the pilot-house.
She had heard no noise from the galley, which was near her room. She was
certain that it was unoccupied, and that she could slip into it
unnoticed, there to satisfy her longing for food from the abundant
supply of canned goods. Then, after relieving her hunger, she could
determine her future conduct. She might decide to act the brave part by
showing herself and demanding to know the cause of her confinement; or
she might return in the way by which she had come to the stateroom, with
a supply of food, and thus await developments.

The distracted girl took a full hour for consideration of the matter.
Betimes, she was bold to the point of desperation; betimes, she was
flaccid with despair, helpless before the mysterious horrors of her
situation. But at last courage rose in her, became dominant. She
resolved to make the attempt at a descent through the opening. Now, she
was not in the least intimidated by the very real danger of being unable
to secure safe footing upon the narrow runway. The deck below was
without a solid rail. It had only the light hand rail with an open space
beneath, through which her body might easily plunge into the sea.
Moreover, the peril of the exploit was increased for her by the fact of
her injured ankle, which must make her footing awkward and unsteady at
the best.

Ethel found some comfort on a final examination of the