Part 18 (1/2)

”Charley?” he said.

”Of course. Hasn't he told you?” said Eleanor; and though she laughed, there was diffidence and pride in her eyes when she glanced at the man beside her. It was also, her brother felt, rather more than the pride of possession.

”I must explain,” said Jordan. ”When I came off this morning, Jimmy was too sleepy to be entrusted with any information of the kind. Still, I quite think I deserve a few congratulations.”

Jimmy looked at him with a faint wrinkling of his brows, and then involuntarily turned toward the rest of the company.

”Well,” he said, ”I suppose it's only natural, though of course I never expected this.”

Mrs. Forster laughed outright. ”Then everybody else did, and ventured to approve of it.”

Jimmy stretched his hand out, and grasped that of his comrade slowly and tenaciously. ”After all, there is n.o.body I should sooner trust her to, and I don't think you could have got anybody more--capable, generally,”

he said. ”Eleanor, you see, is cleverer than I am.”

Eleanor Wheelock naturally understood her brother, and there was whimsical toleration in her smile, while the little twinkle grew more p.r.o.nounced in Jordan's eyes. He was a shrewd man, and had already formed a reasonably accurate notion of Jimmy and Eleanor Wheelock's respective capabilities.

”Thank you!” he said. ”The other boat should be almost alongside.”

He moved aft with Eleanor and the rest of the guests, while Jimmy, who had not quite recovered from his astonishment, was leaning on the rail when another boat slid around the _Shasta_'s stern. He recognized Austerly and his daughter on board her, and then felt his heart beat and the blood creep into his face, for Anthea Merril was sitting at Miss Austerly's side. He had not seen her since he stood one morning on the wharf in the man-o'-war cap, but he had thought of her often, and now, though his pleasure at seeing her almost drove out the other feeling, it seemed unfitting that she should be there to take her part in sending out the steamer that was, if the _Shasta_ Company could contrive it, to bring to nothing her father's scheme. The boat was alongside in a few moments, and when her occupants reached the deck Austerly shook hands with Jimmy.

”I must offer you my congratulations on being in command,” he said. ”My daughter seemed to fancy we should be warranted in bringing Miss Merril.”

Anthea smiled at Jimmy. ”Yes,” she said, ”I wanted to come; but of course if it was presumptuous, you can send me back again.”

”I think you ought to know there is n.o.body I should sooner see;” and Jimmy, who was not so alert as usual that evening, looked at her too steadily.

Anthea met his gaze for a moment, and then, considering that she was a young woman accustomed to hold her own in Colonial society, it was, perhaps, a trifle curious that she slowly looked away. None of the others noticed this, except Miss Austerly, and she kept any conclusions she may have formed to herself. Then, though it seemed to come about naturally without anybody's contrivance, Austerly and his daughter joined Jordan, and for a few minutes Anthea and Jimmy were left alone.

The girl leaned on the rail looking across the s.h.i.+ning water toward the great white hull of the Empress boat lying, immaculate and beautiful in outline, beneath the climbing town. Then she turned, and Jimmy felt that he knew what she was thinking as her eyes wandered over the little rusty _Shasta_. Though he had not spoken, she smiled in a manner which seemed to imply comprehension when he looked at her.

”Yes,” she said, ”there has been a change since I last saw you--and I am glad you are in command. One can't help thinking that you must find this, at least, a trifle more familiar.”

”At least?” said Jimmy.

Anthea nodded, and her eyes rested on the big white mail-boat again. ”I think,” she said, ”you quite know what I mean.”

Once more Jimmy's prudence failed him. ”Well,” he said, ”it is rather a curious thing that even when you don't express it I generally seem to.

I don't know”--and he added this reflectively--”why it should be so.”

”I think that is rather a difficult question--one, in fact, that we should gain nothing by going into. How long are you going to command the _Shasta_?”

”Until----” and Jimmy, who had not quite recovered from his exertions during the voyage, stopped abruptly. He could not tell his companion that he expected to sail the dilapidated steamer until she had wrested away a sufficient share of the trade her father was laying hands upon to enable Jordan to buy a larger one.

”I don't quite know,” he added. ”Anyway, I was very glad to get her. It is pleasanter to take command than to carry planks about the Hastings wharf ash.o.r.e.”

”You were doing that?” and for no very ostensible reason a faint tinge of color crept into his companion's face. Labor is held more or less honorable in that country, but, after all, Anthea Merril was a young woman of station.

”It must have been a change,” she said a moment later.

”From the lumber schooner, or Valentine's _Sorata_?”