At nine o’clock the following morning, while the captain was in his stateroom dressing to go ashore, Toni opened the door.

His face was scowling and timid at the same time, as though he had some bad news to give.

“That creature is here,” he said laconically.

Ferragut looked at him with a questioning expression:  “What creature?...”

“Who else could it be?...  The one from Naples!  That blonde devil that brought us all so much trouble!...  We’ll see now if this witch is going to keep us immovable for I don’t know how many weeks just as she did the other time.”

He excused himself as though he had just failed in discipline.  The boat was fastened to the wharf by a bridgeway and anybody could come aboard.  The pilot was opposed to these dockings which left the passage free to the curious and the importunate.  By the time he had finished announcing her arrival, the lady was already on deck near the staterooms.  She remembered well the way to the saloon.  She had wished to go straight in, but it had been Caragol who had stopped her, while Toni went to advise the captain.

“Cristo!” murmured Ulysses. “Cristo!...”

And his astonishment, his surprise, did not permit him to utter any other exclamation.

Then he burst out furiously.  “Throw her overboard!...  Let two men lay hold of her and put her back on the wharf, by main force, if necessary.”

But Toni hesitated, not daring to comply with such commands.  And the impetuous Ferragut rushed outside of his cabin to do himself what had been ordered.

When he reached the saloon some one entered at the same time from the deck.  It was Caragol, who was trying to block the passage of a woman; but she, laughing and taking advantage of his purblind eyes, was slipping little by little in between his body and the wooden partition.

On seeing the captain, Freya ran toward him, throwing out her arms.

“You!” she cried in a merry voice.  “I knew well enough that you were here, in spite of the fact that these men were assuring me to the contrary....  My heart told me so....  How do you do, Ulysses!”

Caragol turned his eyes toward the place where he supposed the mate must be, as though imploring his pardon.  With females he never could carry out any order....  Toni, on his part, appeared in an agony of shame before this woman who was looking at him defiantly.

The two disappeared.  Ferragut was not able to say exactly how they got away, but he was glad of it.  He feared that the recent arrival might allude in their presence to the things of the past.

He remained contemplating her a long time.  He had believed the day before that he had recognized her back, and now he was sure that he might have passed on with indifference had he seen her face.  Was this really the same woman that the two English officials were accompanying?...  She appeared much taller than the other one, with a slenderness that made her skin appear more clear, giving it a delicate transparency.  The nose was finer and more prominent.  The eyes were sparkling, hidden in bluish black circles.