Page:The Great Secret.djvu/104

88 about the gambling resorts. He was not at all jealous, for he had trained this woman to be what she was.

These three ladies were what might be termed the leaders of this Anarchical society, and the doctor might well feel satisfied with his female comrades, for there was not a good woman amongst them. It was a ship of abandoned and degraded souls, at unity only in their hatred of humanity outside their own ring, having one virtue only: that of fidelity to themselves, or rather to their cause.

They were murderers and murderesses, as well as profligates and obscene animals, yet none had as yet betrayed a brother or a sister. Fear made them faithful in that respect, for they were spies on each other, using their amours and their friendships for the purpose of probing their secrets; therefore they played at love and friendship, while their every movement was a sham. They were hopeless cynics, who had used up the emotions of life long ago, and could no longer enjoy any pleasure really.

They laughed, however, loudly, and made dubious remarks that were even understood by the youngest, enjoying the forced hilarity of pandemonium, while the doctor and the other chiefs sat listening to them gravely as they smoked their cigarettes; and while they cracked their nuts and drank their wine the storm increased outside, and the watchers on the bridge and at the wheel became like snow statues with that whirling and heavy drift.

Nothing could be seen in front of them with that dense falling shroud; the decks, rails, yards and shrouds were already thickly coated with snow. The sky was filled with the falling flakes. The wind howled