This ship is so crank and walty I fear our grave she will be!

Slowly she turned round and faced towards a neat white bungalow, set some way back from the path behind a low hedge of golden privet. No light showed, but someone there was playing the piano. The strange elusiveness of the soft, insistent melody seemed to draw her forward.

to concoct a cunning plan

A flashlight: Hugh Barton and his bride limply astare—frightened;