"Here is Aunt Julie," interrupted Miss Cahere, walking away.

Mr. Mangles gave a short sigh, and lapsed into silence.

As Miss Cahere went forward, she passed another officer of the ship, the
second in command, a dogged, heavy man, whose mind was given to the ship
and his own career. He must have seen something to interest him in Netty
Cahere's face--perhaps he caught a glance from the dark-lashed eyes--for
he turned and looked at her again, with a sudden, dull light in his
face.




II

SIGNAL HOUSE

Where Gravesend merges into Northfleet--where the spicy odors of
chemical-fertilizing works mingle with the dry dust of the cement
manufactories which throw their tall chimneys into an ever-gray
sky--there stands a house known as the Signal House. Why it is so called
no one knows and very few care to inquire. It is presumably a square
house of the Jacobean period--presumably because it is so hidden by
trees, so wrapped in grimy ivy, so dust-laden and so impossible to get
at, that its outward form is no longer to be perceived.

It is within sound of the bells that jingle dismally on the heads of
the tram-car horses, plying their trade on the high-road, and yet it is
haunted. Its two great iron gates stand on the very pavement, and they