He could not have done the conventional thing, the deliberate, calm, or expected thing, to save his immortal soul. His nature was far too honest, too unabashed. He came a step nearer--and then she knew, but she could not have moved at the moment had death been the oncoming penalty for remaining where she stood. She had never been so startled in her life. They two were absolutely alone and unobserved. Of this the impulsive Grenville was aware--and the knowledge had fired a certain madness in his being he was powerless to quell. "Elaine," he said, as he suddenly caught her unresisting hands, "you've put old Fenton entirely out of the game. You're going to marry me." She was dimly conscious of pain in her hands, where he crushed them in his ardor. But her shocked surprise was uppermost, as she faced him with blazing eyes. "Mr. Grenville!" she said. "Mr. Grenville--you---- To say--to speak----" "Elaine," he interrupted gayly, bright devils dancing in his boyish eyes, "it simply couldn't be helped. We were intended to meet--and were cut out for one another. So the hour must come when you'll pitch old Gerald's ring in the sea by order of the very Fates themselves!" She snatched away her hands in indignation. "For shame!" she cried in rising anger, her whole womanly being aflame with resistance to all his growing madness. "You haven't the slightest right in the world----" "Right?" he repeated. "Right? I love you, Elaine! I love you! Haven't I said----" "Oh, the treachery--the treachery to Gerald!" she cut in, with swiftly increasing emotion. "To say such things when your honor----" "Wait!" he interrupted, eagerly. "I told him what he might expect from any such arrangement. I warned him precisely what might happen. He understood--accepted my conditions--made it a challenge--declared if I tried I couldn't win! And now----" "You can't--you can't!--you can't!" she cried at him, angrily. "To think that Gerald--to think you'd dare----" He suddenly caught her in his arms and crushed her against his breast. He kissed her on the mouth, despite her struggles. "Elaine," he said, "you are mine--all mine--my sweetheart--my comrade--my mate!" She finally planted her fists against his throat and thrust him from her in fury. "You brute!" she answered, sobbing in her anger. "I hate you--I loathe you--despise you utterly! I wish I might never see your face again!" "I'll make you love me, Elaine," he answered, white at last with intensity and deep-going passion. "I'll make you love me, as I love you--as madly--as wholly--as wondrously--before ever we two get home." Already Elaine was retreating from the place. "Never!" she answered, wildly. "Never, never, never!--do you hear?--not if it takes this boat a hundred years!" And gropingly, almost blinded by her sense of shame and rage, she fled from the deck and down the stairs, leaving him shaken where he stood. CHAPTER III A MIDNIGHT TRAGEDY