She was conscious only that she was borne from the deck of one vessel to the other, and that then her abductor carried her down a short flight of steps into the interior of the boat. She heard him open a door, and she was conscious then that she was in a lighted room, although she could not have opened her eyes to save her life, it seemed to her.
They traversed this room, or cabin—she did not see what it was—and presently passed through a second door. Inside this second apartment the air was cool and sweet. She could hear the bur-r-r of an electric fan and could feel the draft it created.
But still she did not open her eyes. Then she realized that her captor was putting her down, and he did it so quietly and so tenderly that she decided he must believe that she had fainted, and, in order not to undeceive him, she kept her eyes closed.
Her only thought now was to escape from his arms—to liberate herself from his immediate grasp—to get away from him, from his touch; to be out of his reach.
For she still held Max Kane’s revolver in her grasp, and she closed her fingers even more tightly around the butt of it, in order that it might not drop out of her reach, and she pushed it even farther among the folds of her dress in order that he might not by any possibility discover that she had it.
And then he put her down. She felt that she was resting upon an upholstered chair, and that the pirate was bending over her, studying her features.
She permitted herself to breathe a little—just enough to reassure him so that he would not resort to extreme measures to bring her back to consciousness. She only hoped that he would go away and leave her until she could have time to recover her senses fully—until she might think over the awful thing that had happened, and decide what to do.
She even thought calmly about the expedient of putting a bullet through her own heart the moment the pirate should leave her alone, and she regarded the idea quite calmly, as something which was not at all impracticable. He touched her hands with the tips of his own fingers, having drawn off his gauntleted gloves in order to do so. Then he touched her brow in the same manner, and she shuddered almost, lest he should use his lips.