"I fear that there is something more serious than accident here, Mr.Brently," said the captain."I wish that you would make a personal and very careful examination of Mr.Caldwell's effects, to ascertain if there is any clew to a motive either for suicide or murder--sift the thing to the bottom.""Aye, aye, sir!" responded Mr.Brently, and left to commence his investigation.
Hazel Strong was prostrated.For two days she did not leave her cabin, and when she finally ventured on deck she was very wan and white, with great, dark circles beneath her eyes.
Waking or sleeping, it seemed that she constantly saw that dark body dropping, swift and silent, into the cold, grim sea.
Shortly after her first appearance on deck following the tragedy, Monsieur Thuran joined her with many expressions of kindly solicitude.
"Oh, but it is terrible, Miss Strong," he said."I cannot rid my mind of it.""Nor I," said the girl wearily."I feel that he might have been saved had I but given the alarm.""You must not reproach yourself, my dear Miss Strong,"urged Monsieur Thuran."It was in no way your fault.
Another would have done as you did.Who would think that because something fell into the sea from a ship that it must necessarily be a man? Nor would the outcome have been different had you given an alarm.For a while they would have doubted your story, thinking it but the nervous hallucination of a woman--had you insisted it would have been too late to have rescued him by the time the ship could have been brought to a stop, and the boats lowered and rowed back miles in search of the unknown spot where the tragedy had occurred.No, you must not censure yourself.You have done more than any other of us for poor Mr.Caldwell--you were the only one to miss him.It was you who instituted the search."The girl could not help but feel grateful to him for his kind and encouraging words.He was with her often--almost constantly for the remainder of the voyage--and she grew to like him very much indeed.Monsieur Thuran had learned that the beautiful Miss Strong, of Baltimore, was an American heiress--a very wealthy girl in her own right, and with future prospects that quite took his breath away when he contemplated them, and since he spent most of his time in that delectable pastime it is a wonder that he breathed at all.
It had been Monsieur Thuran's intention to leave the ship at the first port they touched after the disappearance of Tarzan.
Did he not have in his coat pocket the thing he had taken passage upon this very boat to obtain? There was nothing more to detain him here.He could not return to the Continent fast enough, that he might board the first express for St.Petersburg.
But now another idea had obtruded itself, and was rapidly crowding his original intentions into the background.
That American fortune was not to be sneezed at, nor was its possessor a whit less attractive.
"SAPRISTI! but she would cause a sensation in St.Petersburg."And he would, too, with the assistance of her inheritance.
After Monsieur Thuran had squandered a few million dollars, he discovered that the vocation was so entirely to his liking that he would continue on down to Cape Town, where he suddenly decided that he had pressing engagements that might detain him there for some time.
Miss Strong had told him that she and her mother were to visit the latter's brother there--they had not decided upon the duration of their stay, and it would probably run into months.
She was delighted when she found that Monsieur Thuran was to be there also.
"I hope that we shall be able to continue our acquaintance,"she said."You must call upon mamma and me as soon as we are settled."Monsieur Thuran was delighted at the prospect, and lost no time in saying so.Mrs.Strong was not quite so favorably impressed by him as her daughter.
"I do not know why I should distrust him," she said to Hazel one day as they were discussing him."He seems a perfect gentleman in every respect, but sometimes there is something about his eyes--a fleeting expression which I cannot describe, but which when I see it gives me a very uncanny feeling."The girl laughed."You are a silly dear, mamma," she said.
"I suppose so, but I am sorry that we have not poor Mr.
Caldwell for company instead."
"And I, too," replied her daughter.
Monsieur Thuran became a frequent visitor at the home of Hazel Strong's uncle in Cape Town.His attentions were very marked, but they were so punctiliously arranged to meet the girl's every wish that she came to depend upon him more and more.Did she or her mother or a cousin require an escort--was there a little friendly service to be rendered, the genial and ubiquitous Monsieur Thuran was always available.
Her uncle and his family grew to like him for his unfailing courtesy and willingness to be of service.Monsieur Thuran was becoming indispensable.At length, feeling the moment propitious, he proposed.Miss Strong was startled.
She did not know what to say.
"I had never thought that you cared for me in any such way," she told him."I have looked upon you always as a very dear friend.I shall not give you my answer now.
Forget that you have asked me to be your wife.Let us go on as we have been--then I can consider you from an entirely different angle for a time.It may be that I shall discover that my feeling for you is more than friendship.I certainly have not thought for a moment that I loved you."This arrangement was perfectly satisfactory to Monsieur Thuran.
He deeply regretted that he had been hasty, but he had loved her for so long a time, and so devotedly, that he thought that every one must know it.
"From the first time I saw you, Hazel," he said, "I have loved you.I am willing to wait, for I am certain that so great and pure a love as mine will be rewarded.All that I care to know is that you do not love another.Will you tell me?""I have never been in love in my life," she replied, and he was quite satisfied.On the way home that night he purchased a steam yacht, and built a million-dollar villa on the Black Sea.
