Part 30 (2/2)
”Thank you all the same, but I should prefer to have my meals in my own cabin as before,” she answered.
”Please yourself,” answered Calamity carelessly.
After this, although their relations.h.i.+p remained superficially much the same as it had always been, the Captain taciturn and abrupt, the girl quiet and self-possessed, there was a subtle change in the att.i.tude of each towards the other. Calamity had come to rely on the girl, and now accepted at her hands many little services which tended towards his greater comfort, services which he would have rejected with curt imperiousness less than a fortnight ago.
One day he sent for McPhulach, and in due course the engineer appeared, clad as usual, in soiled dungarees, and clasping a piece of oily cotton-waste in his hand.
”Ye're wishfu' tae see me, sir?” he inquired.
”Yes; sit down.”
The engineer perched himself on the cabin skylight, and began mechanically to rub the bra.s.s rails with his cotton-waste.
”Would you care to go to England after this trip, McPhulach?” asked the Captain abruptly.
McPhulach ceased rubbing the bra.s.s rails, and stared at Calamity in astonishment.
”Tae England?” he repeated.
”Yes. I may want you in connection with that doc.u.ment you signed, and quite possibly I shall be able to give you a good sh.o.r.e job.”
”It a' depends,” answered the engineer thoughtfully. ”Ye see, skeeper, I hae sairtain financial obleegations in that country which I canna dischairge. An' meybe there are ane or twa leddies who'd mak' it no verra pleasant for me gin they were tae ken I was back.”
”H'm; I should have thought that a man of your resource and experience could have overcome that difficulty.”
McPhulach considered for a little time, and the cloud on his brow lifted.
”I ken brawly wha' tae dae, sir!” he exclaimed. ”Gin ye'll ca' me Jones and give oot that I'm a Welshman, there's no a body who'd recognise me.”
Something like a chuckle escaped the Captain, but he answered in a perfectly grave voice.
”If you think that device will overcome your difficulties, I have no objection to calling you Jones and informing all whom it may concern that you're a Welshman.”
”Frae Pontypreed.”
”From Pontypridd, if you like. That sounds Welsh enough.”
”Then I'll sign on wi' ye, sir.”
”Right, then that's settled,” answered Calamity, and McPhulach, preening himself upon his astuteness, returned to the engine-room.
That evening, when Miss Fletcher came on the bridge to relieve the Captain, he seemed inclined to linger.
”By the twenty-seventh,” he said, ”we ought to be in Singapore.”
”In Singapore,” murmured the girl, and nodded as if in answer to some unspoken thought.
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