As it was, the escape was almost a miracle." "A miracle!" softly.

"Perhaps so, yet I know who accomplished it.

I owe my life to you, Captain West," she paused doubtfully, and then went on impulsively.

"Won't you explain to me now what it all means?
How you came to be here?
and--and why those men sought in this way to kill me ?" "You do not know ?" "Only in the vaguest way; is it my fortune?
I have been held prisoner; lied to, and yet nothing has been made clear.

This man who went down in the cabin--you said he died trying to save me ?" "Yes; he endeavoured to release you from the stateroom, and was caught by Hogan.