The hands of the phantom clock pointed to ten minutes of nine. But I knew the gulf lay before me at the end of the short, narrow street that led down to it, up which I had passed two hours before upon that journey which so nearly ended in the snow-drifts of Souse-le-Cap. I reached the wharf and raced along the planks. I was in time, although the engines were throbbing in the _Sainte-Vierge_. But it was not she, but the dark _Claire_ I sought at that moment, and I dashed toward her. A man barred my approach. He caught me in his strong arms and held me fast. I dash my fists against his face, but he would not let me go. "Are you mad, _monsieur_?" he burst out as I continued to struggle. And then I recognized my captor as Captain Dubois. "Jacqueline is on the _Claire_!" I cried, trying to make him understand. "They took her there. They----" "It is all right," answered Dubois, holding me with one hand, while with the other he wiped a blood drop from his lip where I had struck him. "It is all right. I have her." I stared wildly at him. "She is on the _Claire_!" I cried again. "No, _mon ami_. She is aboard the _Sainte-Vierge_," replied Dubois, chuckling, "and if you wish to accompany _mademoiselle_ you must come with me at once, for we are getting up steam." I could not believe him. I thought that Leroux had tampered with the honest man. It was not until he had taken me, half forcibly, aboard, and opened the cabin door, that I saw her. She was seated upon her berth, and she rose and came toward me with a glad little cry. "Jacqueline!" I cried, and clasped her in my arms for joy, and quite forgot. A dancing shadow fell upon the wall behind the oil-lamp. The honest captain was rubbing his hands in the doorway and chuckling with delight. "It is all right, it is all right; excuse me, _monsieur_," he said, and closed the door on us. But I called him, and he returned, not very reluctantly. "What has happened, captain?" I asked. "You are not going to leave me in suspense?" "But what has happened to you, _monsieur_?" he asked, with great concern, as he saw the blood on my coat-collar, "You have met with an accident?" Jacqueline cried out and ran for water, and made me sit down, and began bathing my head. I contrived to whisper something of what had occurred during the moments when Jacqueline flitted to and fro. Dubois swore roundly. "It is my fault, _monsieur_," he said. "I should have known. I should have accompanied you home. It would be a tough customer who would venture to meddle with Alfred Dubois! But I was anxious to get to the telegraph office to inform M. Danton of your coming. And I suspected something, too, for I knew that Leroux had something more in his mind than simply to convey some of his men to St. Boniface at such expense.