"Some lunatic escaped from the steerage, probably. I shall report it to
the officers."

"Yes, it should be reported," said Shirley.

"It was very strange. Why, the deck of the _King Edward_ is the safest
place in the world; but it's something to have had hold of a sea-serpent,
or a pirate! I hope you will forgive me for bringing you into such an
encounter; but if you hadn't caught his cloak--"

Armitage was uncomfortable, and anxious to allay her fears. The incident
was by no means trivial, as he knew. Passengers on the great
transatlantic steamers are safeguarded by every possible means; and the
fact that he had been attacked in the few minutes that the deck lights
had been out of order pointed to an espionage that was both close and
daring. He was greatly surprised and more shaken than he wished Shirley
to believe. The thing was disquieting enough, and it could not but
impress her strangely that he, of all the persons on board, should have
been the object of so unusual an assault. He was in the disagreeable
plight of having subjected her to danger, and as they entered the
brilliant saloon he freed himself of the ulster with its telltale gash
and sought to minimize her impression of the incident.

Shirley did not refer to the matter again, but resolved to keep her own
counsel. She felt that any one who would accept the one chance in a
thousand of striking down an enemy on a steamer deck must be animated by
very bitter hatred. She knew that to speak of the affair to her father or
brother would be to alarm them and prejudice them against John Armitage,
about whom her brother, at least, had entertained doubts. And it is not