Part 25 (1/2)
”Huh, it's odd how things take some people I once knew a chap, skipper of the _Flower of the Ocean_, who could drink a hogshead of beer an' be as sober as a judge except in one leg, an' that was a wooden one”
She laughed It was impossible to be vexed with him
”You have met some very remarkable shi+pmasters, if all you say be true,” she cried
”Sailors are queer folk, believe , _Flower of the Ocean_, an' a pretty flower she was, too--all tar an' coal-dust, with a perfume that would poison a rat--put into Grimsby one day, an' the croent ashore They kicked up a shi+ndy with soers, an'
the fur flew When the police ca, the skipper, you knoas the only man left in the place, havin' unshi+pped his crutch for the fight 'What have you bin a-doin' of here--throwin' grapes about?' asked the peeler, gazin' at the floor, suspicious-like
'Grapes,' said Dot-an'-carry-one, 'therapes Them's eyeballs!' Another time--”
”Mr Boyle!” shrieked Elsie, and fled
”Huh!” he grunted ”Off before the hen she hears a Sunday-school yarn like that Wonder what she 'd say if I told her about the pluht up nowadays like orchids They shouldn't be let loose in this wicked world”
As Elsie passed along the promenade deck she saw Courtenay, Tolle a percussion fuse of ful them, Walker dropped a broken furnace bar on top of a se placed on an iron block
Instantly there was a sharp report, and Joey, as an interested observer, juhed, and she heard Courtenay say:
”That is the right proportion of fulminate Now, Tollemache, I'll help you to fix them We do not know the moment those reptiles may choose to attack”
So the captain did not leave the Alaculofrose in her throat, some wave of emotion which threatened her splendid serenity She ran rather than walked to her cabin, flung herself on the bed, and sobbed piteously It had to come, this te courage, she faced theht sunshi+ne and apparent security of the shi+p, sinister death-shadows tortured her into rebellion She did not stop to ask herself why she wept; being a woust, and when it had ended, with the suddenness of a su tears Her first concern was that none should be aware of her weakness
”How stupid of me,” she murmured ”What would the men think if they knew I broke down in this fashi+on”
She looked in a ht without, any one could see she had been crying, and there was so much work to be done that she did not wish to remain in her stateroom until all tokens of the storm had passed She searched for a powder-puff, and was at a loss to discover its whereabouts until she recollected that the doctor had borrowed it for the use of a htly scalded when his own supply of antiseptic poas exhausted So she went into Isobel's roo it for the first time since the _Kansas_ struck on the shoal The two cabins co a door broken through the partition for the girls' use during the voyage If Elsie had not already given way to tears she s strewed in confusion over the floor, chairs, dressing-table, and bed Isobel possessed a gold--case the size of an ordinary portmanteau It held an assortment of pretty, and mostly useless, knick-knacks, and they had all been tumbled out in a frantic hurry At first Elsie flinched from further scrutiny, but coht She dropped to her knees, found a mother-o'-pearl _poudrier_, and picked up other scattered articles and replaced the-case To accoe various trays and drawers Portraits of girl friends, including her own, and of men unknown to her, letters, memoranda, and other documents, were thrown about in disorder All these she put back in their receptacles, wondering the while what motive had led Isobel to make such a frenzied search for some special object that she cared not a jot what beca articles
Yet, who could account for the frenzy of that terrible hour when the captain announced the shi+p's danger? Even Courtenay himself, she re's coat; but he had laughingly explained his haste later when soarht of panic She gathered up a skirt and so-case, put the key in her purse, and quitted the roo of her friend's treasures had brought sadinto the deck corridor, she heard the captain's voice, apparently at a considerable distance Two hundred yards away fro a flat framework, built of spare hatches and secured by wooden cross-pieces On it stood the first of the infernal machines The raft floated level with the water, so its only conspicuous fitting was a small spar and a block, to which a line and an iron bar were attached The e in her eyes at that distance In the ht she could see their features distinctly, and, when Courtenay shouted to a sailor to haul in the slack of the line, she caught a tru that recalled the scene in the saloon when he held back the ainst the shi+th He looked a born leader of h to lanced over the side of the shi+p than he waved a hand to her
She sighed A bitter thought peeped up in her that he was perhaps a trifle careless in showing her these little attentions She wished he would speak to her of that other girl aited hiland A pleasant state of confidence would be established then; these secret twitches of senti
Some women, in her place, would pay no heed to that aspect of their enforced relations; not so Elsie, whose virginal breast was unduly fluttered by the discovery that a youngwoman to think about
She walked aft to obtain a nearer view of the operations The sailors had already shut in a large portion of the promenade deck with canvas, and she noticed that loopholes were provided, every ten feet or so, to permit the effective use of the defenders' firearms Thus, at each step, she was reminded of the precarious hold she had on life, and she was positively frightened when so her imperiously to abandon her ultra-conscientious loyalty to a woainst circuain by prudery?
For an instant she stood aghast at the revelation which had come to her She was in love with Courtenay She was ready to die by his side, fearless and joyous, if only he would put his arms around her and tell her that she was dear to hiht of that first silent surrender! Her heart beat as it had never pulsed before, even under the stress of the storht attack Her eyes shone, and her breath came laboriously between parted lips Golden dreah her brain She was thrilled with an unutterable longing
Then her swi on the poop
A the of the ht back, shuddering, to cold reason again She was sick at heart; she hated herself for her self-abaseird her with sackcloth and ht noithout parley or hesitation, unless the sweetness were to go forth fros should turn to ashes in herthe best qualities of her womanhood, she quelled the turmoil in her breast, forced herself to join theSpaniard turned to receive her:
”Why a, Dr Christobal?
Is it that you dread the effect on my nerves of theseroo by his side ”I had ”
”Resting, indeed! I have been quite busy Where do they mean to put the second contrivance?”