‘And don’t you dare to venture down here again,’ replied Farrell, trembling with excitement, ‘or I will carry out my threat, and expose you before the whole ship’s company, as Mr Horace Cain, the for--’ ‘Take care what you say,’ interrupted Harland, in a hoarse voice, ‘or I shall not be able to control my temper. I have stood your insults long enough.’ ‘Not longer than I have submitted to yours. And I have a double debt to discharge to you now, Mr Harland. You think that I know nothing,--that I am powerless to damage your character. What about Maggie Greet, who served your deserted wife in England?’ At that name, Godfrey Harland felt his limbs tremble. The thought of Maggie Greet had always had more power to sting his hardened conscience than that of his wife. He was more afraid of her than of Iris, and less certain of her keeping his secrets. ‘I don’t know to whom you allude,’ he replied, attempting to brave it out. ‘Was she the “slavey?” You really cannot expect me to remember the names of those sort of people.’ ‘And yet she remembers _you_,’ said Farrell sarcastically. ‘How strange. And she remembers the wrong you did her into the bargain. Stranger still, isn’t it?’ ‘Oh, enough of this cursed twaddle!’ cried Harland, who was most anxious to get away. ‘You are talking of a lot of things of which you know nothing. I am off to bed now. Let us thoroughly understand each other. If you presume to speak to me again, I shall cut you dead.’ ‘And if you come down to the second cabin again, I’ll break every bone in your body,’ retorted Farrell. ‘And when I get you on shore, my boy, we’ll have it out, whoever is by to see, and let the best man win.’ Harland was on the top rung of the ladder, and as he heard Will Farrell’s parting threat he turned pale with fear, and the beads of perspiration stood on his forehead like dew. What if any one should have overheard his words. He pushed up the hatch, and alighting on the deck, staggered to his cabin, and threw himself upon the berth in a state bordering on despair. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XIII. IN THE SMOKE-ROOM. The accident that occurred to little Winifred Leyton, and the rough weather that succeeded it, had pretty well driven the idea of the proposed theatricals out of the ladies’ heads. In the first place, an unaccountable gloom seemed to have fallen upon the amateur company, and they became so indifferent about the whole affair, that Miss Vere left them to themselves, and sought refuge in her own studies. Alice Leyton and Captain Lovell looked as if the world were over for both of them. He had been afraid, since his interview with Mrs Leyton, to speak more openly to her daughter than he had done, and the girl imagined, in consequence, that he had been trifling with her. She spent her time, therefore, in gazing in a melancholy fashion over the sea, whilst he sat at the opposite side of the deck and gazed at her; and Miss Vere said she was quite sick of them both.