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.

"They explained," he continued, "that before sailing you

had expressed the hope that something really exciting and

adventurous would befall the party--that you were tired of

the monotonous humdrum of twentieth-century existence--

that you regretted the decadence of piracy, and the expunging

of romance from the seas.

"Mr. Divine, they told me, was a very wealthy young man,

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