Whipping a long-bladed knife from his pocket, Jack Dineheart flashed it before her eyes, adding wildly:
"This blade will soon find the traitor's heart!"
Then he rushed away madly toward the yacht.
"Oh, Heaven, save my husband!" shrieked Nita, and fell back unconscious.
There Lizette found her on returning from an unsuccessful attempt to bribe Mrs. Rhodus, and, being ignorant of Nita's interview with the sailor, she vehemently blamed herself for having taken her young mistress from the bed and leaving her in the chair at the window.
"She was too weak, poor darling, and could not bear it," she sighed, as she applied restoratives, and got Nita back into bed.
It was some time before Nita recovered, and then her voice failed her when she tried to speak. The shock of Jack Dineheart's threat had almost killed her, and Lizette hung over her despairingly.
"Oh, it is my own fault, my own fault! I ought not to have told her the yacht was coming. It makes her suspense all the more terrible," she murmured self-reproachfully.
Suddenly Nita's closed eyes opened, and she moaned sadly:
"Dorian will be murdered by the sailor with the terrible knife! Oh, Lizette, save him! save him!"