Then Mr. Divine understood the trend of her thoughts.  He tried to find some excuse for his cowardly act; but with the realization of the true cowardliness and treachery of it that the girl didn’t even guess he understood the futility of seeking to extenuate it.  He saw that the chances were excellent that after all he would be compelled to resort to force or threats to win her hand at the last.

“Billy would have done better to have bowed to the inevitable as I did,” he said.  “Living I am able to help you now.  Dead I could not have prevented them carrying out their intentions any more than Billy has, nor could I have been here to aid you now any more than he is.  I cannot see that his action helped you to any great extent, brave as it was.”

“The memory of it and him will always help me,” she answered quietly.  “They will help me to bear whatever is before me bravely, and, when the time comes, to die bravely; for I shall always feel that upon the other side a true, brave heart is awaiting me.”

The man was silent.  After a moment the girl spoke again.  “I think I would rather be alone, Larry,” she said.  “I am very unhappy and nervous.  Possibly I could sleep now.”

With a bow he turned and left the cabin.

For weeks the Halfmoon kept steadily on her course, a little south of west.  There was no material change in the relations of those aboard her.  Barbara Harding, finding herself unmolested, finally acceded to the repeated pleas of Mr. Divine, to whose society she had been driven by loneliness and fear, and appeared on deck frequently during the daylight watches.  Here, one afternoon, she came face to face with Theriere for the first time since her abduction.  The officer lifted his cap deferentially; but the girl met his look of expectant recognition with a cold, blank stare that passed through and beyond him as though he had been empty air.

A tinge of color rose to the man’s face, and he continued on his way for a moment as though content to accept her rebuff; but after a step or two he turned suddenly and confronted her.

“Miss Harding,” he said, respectfully, “I cannot blame you for the feeling of loathing and distrust you must harbor toward me; but in common justice I think you should hear me before finally condemning.”

“I cannot imagine,” she returned coldly, “what defense there can be for the cowardly act you perpetrated.”

“I have been utterly deceived by my employers,” said Theriere, hastening to take advantage of the tacit permission to explain which her reply contained.  “I was given to understand that the whole thing was to be but a hoax—­that I was taking part in a great practical joke that Mr. Divine was to play upon his old friends, the Hardings and their guests.  Until they wrecked and deserted the Lotus in mid-ocean I had no idea that anything else was contemplated, although I felt that the matter, even before that event, had been carried quite far enough for a joke.