Bursting into a fit of hysterical weeping the woman drew back, endeavoring to close the cabin door. But Darrin's foot across the sill defeated her purpose. "You are a brute!" she panted, frantically trying to close the door. "At least," he assured her, "I have saved you from a crime that would have cost you your own life. Look out, please, for I am going to throw your door wide open." "You--you coward!" she panted, and struggled to close the door. "Stand back! I am sorry to have to use force, but you compel it." As she refused to give ground Darrin gave the door a push that forced her back, crowding her against a berth. Then he stepped into the little cabin. In a lower berth lay a middle-aged woman whose piercing black eyes snapped as she surveyed the young naval officer. "You are a wretch, to intrude here!" cried the older woman. "One must often do disagreeable things in the line of war duty," Darrin answered, gravely. "For one thing, I must place you both in arrest. Then I shall be obliged to have your cabin searched." "Oh, if I but had a weapon!" cried the older woman. "If you had, and were quick enough," Dave assured her, "you might succeed in killing me, but that would not affect our duty here, for there are other officers at hand. Madam, I perceive that you are fully dressed, so I must ask you to rise and leave this cabin, for a few minutes, at least." "I shall not do it," she snapped. "Then you will oblige me to call my men in, and they will remove you, using no unnecessary violence, you may be sure, yet employing force just the same." "You coward!" The younger woman, too, started in to berate him, but Dave remained calm. "Will you, at least, not leave the room until I have risen?" demanded the older woman. Darrin, who had a notion that the women wanted to conceal or destroy something, nodded his assent, but signed to two of the seamen to enter. Under his instructions they took the door off its hinges, carried it outside and laid it on the floor of the dining cabin. "Now, ladies," Dave called, as he stepped outside, "you will be good enough to come out at once." "We will come at our good convenience!" snapped the older woman. "Wrong again. As I am discharging my duty here, you will necessarily come out at once. I shall not be patient if my instructions are defied." Plainly furious that the door could not be closed, the younger woman assisted the older one to rise from the berth. Then, both expressing their resentment in their glances, the two women came out of the cabin. "Mother and daughter," guessed Dave. "Where will you have us sit, Brute?" demanded the younger woman. "Take any seat in this dining cabin that you please," he replied. "You must sit together, and one of my men will stand before you." Seats having been taken by the women, Darrin, calling one of the sailors to him, entered the little cabin. The only baggage there, beyond a hand satchel, appeared to be a locked steamer trunk under the lower berth.