What were those two to each other? I could not guess, for they seemed
from two utterly different worlds. Not brother and sister surely; and
not lovers. The last was unthinkable. Perhaps mere chance
acquaintances, who had drifted together since coming aboard. It seems
strange that at such a moment my attention should have thus centered
on these two, yet I think now that either one would have awakened my
interest wherever we had met. Instinctively I disliked the man, aware
of an instant antagonism, realizing that he was evil; while his
companion came to me as revealment of all that was true and worthy,
in a degree I had never known before. I could not banish either from
my mind. For months I had been in prison, expecting a death sentence,
much of the time passed in solitary confinement, and now, with that
cloud lifted, I had come forth into a fresh existence only to be
confronted by this man and woman, representing exact opposites. Their
peculiarities took immediate possession of a mind entirely unoccupied,
nor did I make any effort to banish them from my thought. From the
instant I looked upon these two I felt convinced that, through some
strange vagary of fate, we were destined to know more of each other;
that our life lines were ordained to touch, and become entangled,
somewhere in that mystery of the Western World to which I had been
condemned. I cannot analyze this conception, but merely record its
presence; the thought took firm possession of me. Under the
circumstances I was too far away to overhear conversation. The
shuffling of feet, the rattling of chains, the harsh voices of the
guard, made it impossible to distinguish any words passing between the
two. I could only watch them, quickly assured that I had likewise
attracted the girl's attention, and that her gaze occasionally sought
mine. Then the guards came to me, and, with my limbs freed of fetters,
I was passed down the steep ladder into the semi-darkness between
decks, where we were to be confined. The haunting memory of her face