Her staring eyes seemed suddenly to grasp his meaning. But to his surprise she burst out with a certain hysterical desperation, “No! no! Never! NEVER again! Let me pass! I must go,” and struggled to regain the door. Jack, albeit singularly relieved to know that she shared his private sentiments regarding Stratton, nevertheless resisted her. Whereat she suddenly turned white, reeled back, and sank in a dead faint in the chair. The gambler turned, drew the key from the inside of the door, passed out, locking it behind him, and walked leisurely into the main saloon. “Mrs. Johnson,” he said gravely, addressing the stewardess, a tall mulatto, with his usual winsome supremacy over dependents and children, “you'll oblige me if you'll corral a few smelling salts, vinaigrettes, hairpins, and violet powder, and unload them in deck stateroom No. 257. There's a lady”-- “A lady, Marse Hamlin?” interrupted the mulatto, with an archly significant flash of her white teeth. “A lady,” continued Jack with unabashed gravity, “in a sort of conniption fit. A relative of mine; in fact a niece, my only sister's child. Hadn't seen each other for ten years, and it was too much for her.” The woman glanced at him with a mingling of incredulous belief, but delighted obedience, hurriedly gathered a few articles from her cabin, and followed him to No. 257. The young girl was still unconscious. The stewardess applied a few restoratives with the skill of long experience, and the young girl opened her eyes. They turned vacantly from the stewardess to Jack with a look of half recognition and half frightened inquiry. “Yes,” said Jack, addressing the eyes, although ostentatiously speaking to Mrs. Johnson, “she'd only just come by steamer to 'Frisco and wasn't expecting to see me, and we dropped right into each other here on the boat. And I haven't seen her since she was so high. Sister Mary ought to have warned me by letter; but she was always a slouch at letter writing. There, that'll do, Mrs. Johnson. She's coming round; I reckon I can manage the rest. But you go now and tell the purser I want one of those inside staterooms for my niece,--MY NIECE, you hear,--so that you can be near her and look after her.”