It was by lamplight that I awoke. I lay in a berth¹（卧铺，停泊位） amid the familiar surroundings of the state-room of a steamer. On a couch opposite sat a man, half undressed for bed, reading a book. I recognized the face of my friend Gordon Doyle, whom I had met in Liverpool on the day of my embarkation², when he was himself about to sail on the steamer City of Prague, on which he had urged me to accompany him.

After some moments I now spoke³ his name. He simply said, 'Well,' and turned a leaf in his book without removing his eyes from the page.

'Doyle,' I repeated, 'did they save her? '

He now deigned⁴ to look at me and smiled as if amused. He evidently thought me but half awake.

'Her? Whom do you mean?'

'Janette Harford.'

His amusement turned to amazement⁵; he stared at me fixedly⁶, saying nothing.

'You will tell me after awhile,' I continued; 'I suppose you will tell me after awhile.'

A moment later I asked: 'What ship is this? ' Doyle stared again. 'The steamer City of Prague, bound from Liverpool to New York, three weeks out with a broken shaft⁷. Principal passenger, Mr. Gordon Doyle; ditto lunatic（疯子） , Mr. William Jarrett. These two distinguished⁸ travellers embarked⁹ together, but they are about to part, it being the resolute¹⁰ intention of the former to pitch the latter overboard.'

I sat bolt upright. 'Do you mean to say that I have been for three weeks a passenger on this steamer?'

'Yes, pretty nearly; this is the 3rd of July.'

'Have I been ill? '

'Right as a trivet（一切顺利） all the time, and punctual（准时的） at your meals.'

'My God! Doyle, there is some mystery here; do have the goodness to be serious. Was I not rescued from the wreck¹¹ of the ship Morrow?'

Doyle changed colour, and approaching me, laid his fingers on my wrist. A moment later, 'What do you know of Janette Harford?' he asked very calmly.

'First tell me what you know of her?'

Mr. Doyle gazed at me for some moments as if thinking what to do, then seating himself again on the couch, said:

'Why should I not? I am engaged to marry Janette Harford, whom I met a year ago in London. Her family, one of the wealthiest in Devonshire, cut up rough about it, and we eloped -- are eloping rather, for on the day that you and I walked to the landing stage to go aboard this steamer she and her faithful servant, a negress, passed us, driving to the ship Morrow. She would not consent（同意） to go in the same vessel¹² with me, and it had been deemed best that she take a sailing vessel in order to avoid observation and lessen¹³ the risk of detection. I am now alarmed lest this cursed breaking of our machinery¹⁴ may detain us so long that the Morrow will get to New York before us, and the poor girl will not know where to go.'