Then dropping
the match he struck another and put it to his cigarette. At the second
puff he heard a choking gasp, and looked up again.
The woman stood alone, en silhouette against the glow of the
companionway, her arms thrust out as if to ward off some threatened
danger. A second cry broke from her lips, shrill with terror, she
tottered and fell as, dropping his cigarette, Lanyard ran to her.
His vision dazzled by the flame of the match, he sought in vain for any
cause for her apparent fright. For all he could see, the deck was as
empty as he had presumed it to be all through their conversation.
He found her in a faint unmistakably unaffected. Footfalls sounded on
the deck as he knelt, making superficial examination. Collison had
heard her cries and witnessed her fall from the bridge and was coming
to investigate.
"What in blazes----!"
Lanyard replied with a gesture of bewilderment: "She was just going
below. I'd stopped to light a cigarette, saw nothing to account for
this. Wait: I'll fetch water."
He darted down the companionway, filled a glass from a silver thermos
carafe, and hurried back.
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