Page:Under three flags; a story of mystery (IA underthreeflagss00tayliala).pdf/179

 The latter's lip curls slightly. "Again I assure you that there is absolutely no danger. I will answer for your safety on this voyage with my life." Then to Louise, with a look that brings a flush to her fair face: "Have you no faith in the yacht, if not in her owner, Miss Hathaway?"

"I think that Mr. Felton is needlessly alarmed," is that young lady's composed reply. "As for the yacht, I am quite carried away with it, figuratively as well as literally. This is my first voyage, Mr. Van Zandt, and if you will insure me against mal de mer, that dread bugbear of the voyageur, I will try to brave, with becoming equanimity, the perils of the Spanish main."

Cyrus Felton, however, is decidedly alarmed by Van Zandt's admission of the incidental errand of the Semiramis. A strong distrust of her owner begins to grow in his mind; this added to the qualms of seasickness, which have begun to make themselves felt, renders him thoroughly miserable in spirit and body, and without raising another objection he asks to be shown to his stateroom.

It must be confessed that Van Zandt does not manifest heartfelt regret at Mr. Felton's unhappy condition, and even Miss Hathaway is somewhat perfunctory in her expressions of sympathy. An unaccountable confidence in the handsome owner of the Semiramis has replaced her early distrust, and, happily exempt from the "dread bugbear of the voyageur," she accepts with pleasure Van Zandt's proposition that they explore the yacht.

The Semiramis is fair to look upon, from capstan to rudder, and from keelson to main truck. The Vermont maiden marvels at the comfort, convenience and luxury on every hand. The palatial saloon, with its unusually high ceiling, furnished in oriental magnificence and including a superb upright piano, Miss Hathaway's eye notes approvingly; the commodious staterooms, arranged en suite, with the respectable appearing stewardess in charge; the plain but ample and scrupulously neat quarters of the crew; the engineroom, with its masses of highly