lazily interested. Suddenly she lifted her head and cast a quick glance
around and above her. In that momentary lifting of her face Jack saw her
expression. Whatever it was, his own changed instantly; the next moment
there was a crash on the lower deck. It was Jack who had swung himself
over the rail and dropped ten feet, to her side. But not before she had
placed one foot in the meshes of the netting and had gripped the railing
for a spring.

The noise of Jack's fall might have seemed to her bewildered fancy as a
part of her frantic act, for she fell forward vacantly on the railing.
But by this time Jack had grasped her arm as if to help himself to his
feet.

"I might have killed myself by that foolin', mightn't I?" he said
cheerfully.

The sound of a voice so near her seemed to recall to her dazed sense the
uncompleted action his fall had arrested. She made a convulsive bound
towards the railing, but Jack held her fast.

"Don't," he said in a low voice, "don't, it won't pay. It's the sickest
game that ever was played by man or woman. Come here!"

He drew her towards an empty stateroom whose door was swinging on its
hinges a few feet from them. She was trembling violently; he half led,
half pushed her into the room, closed the door and stood with his back
against it as she dropped into a chair. She looked at him vacantly; the
agitation she was undergoing inwardly had left her no sense of outward
perception.