“I guess it was a sea-serpent,” he said.  “It bit a hole in my ulster, for which I am not grateful.”  Then in a lower tone to Shirley:  “That was certainly a strange proceeding.  I am sorry you were startled; and I am under greatest obligations to you, Miss Claiborne.  Why, you actually pulled the fellow away!”

“Oh, no,” she returned lightly, but still breathing hard; “it was the instinct of self-preservation.  I was unsteady on my feet for a moment, and sought something to take hold of.  That pirate was the nearest thing, and I caught hold of his cloak; I’m sure it was a cloak, and that makes me sure he was a human villain of some sort.  He didn’t feel in the least like a sea-serpent.  But some one tried to injure you—­it is no jesting matter—­”

“Some lunatic escaped from the steerage, probably.  I shall report it to the officers.”

“Yes, it should be reported,” said Shirley.

“It was very strange.  Why, the deck of the King Edward is the safest place in the world; but it’s something to have had hold of a sea-serpent, or a pirate!  I hope you will forgive me for bringing you into such an encounter; but if you hadn’t caught his cloak—­”

Armitage was uncomfortable, and anxious to allay her fears.  The incident was by no means trivial, as he knew.  Passengers on the great transatlantic steamers are safeguarded by every possible means; and the fact that he had been attacked in the few minutes that the deck lights had been out of order pointed to an espionage that was both close and daring.  He was greatly surprised and more shaken than he wished Shirley to believe.  The thing was disquieting enough, and it could not but impress her strangely that he, of all the persons on board, should have been the object of so unusual an assault.  He was in the disagreeable plight of having subjected her to danger, and as they entered the brilliant saloon he freed himself of the ulster with its telltale gash and sought to minimize her impression of the incident.

Shirley did not refer to the matter again, but resolved to keep her own counsel.  She felt that any one who would accept the one chance in a thousand of striking down an enemy on a steamer deck must be animated by very bitter hatred.  She knew that to speak of the affair to her father or brother would be to alarm them and prejudice them against John Armitage, about whom her brother, at least, had entertained doubts.  And it is not reassuring as to a man of whom little or nothing is known that he is menaced by secret enemies.

The attack had found Armitage unprepared and off guard, but with swift reaction his wits were at work.  He at once sought the purser and scrutinized every name on the passenger list.  It was unlikely that a steerage passenger could reach the saloon deck unobserved; a second cabin passenger might do so, however, and he sought among the names in the second cabin list for a clue.  He did not believe that Chauvenet or Durand had boarded the King Edward.  He himself had made the boat only by a quick dash, and he had left those two gentlemen at Geneva with much to consider.