Part 2 (1/2)

She was dimly conscious of pain in her hands, where he crushed them in his ardor. But her shocked surprise was uppermost, as she faced him with blazing eyes.

”Mr. Grenville!” she said. ”Mr. Grenville--you---- To say--to speak----”

”Elaine,” he interrupted gayly, bright devils dancing in his boyish eyes, ”it simply couldn't be helped. We were intended to meet--and were cut out for one another. So the hour must come when you'll pitch old Gerald's ring in the sea by order of the very Fates themselves!”

She s.n.a.t.c.hed away her hands in indignation.

”For shame!” she cried in rising anger, her whole womanly being aflame with resistance to all his growing madness. ”You haven't the slightest right in the world----”

”Right?” he repeated. ”Right? I love you, Elaine! I love you!

Haven't I said----”

”Oh, the treachery--the treachery to Gerald!” she cut in, with swiftly increasing emotion. ”To say such things when your honor----”

”Wait!” he interrupted, eagerly. ”I told him what he might expect from any such arrangement. I warned him precisely what might happen. He understood--accepted my conditions--made it a challenge--declared if I tried I couldn't win! And now----”

”You can't--you can't!--you can't!” she cried at him, angrily. ”To think that Gerald--to think you'd dare----”

He suddenly caught her in his arms and crushed her against his breast.

He kissed her on the mouth, despite her struggles.

”Elaine,” he said, ”you are mine--all mine--my sweetheart--my comrade--my mate!”

She finally planted her fists against his throat and thrust him from her in fury.

”You brute!” she answered, sobbing in her anger. ”I hate you--I loathe you--despise you utterly! I wish I might never see your face again!”

”I'll make you love me, Elaine,” he answered, white at last with intensity and deep-going pa.s.sion. ”I'll make you love me, as I love you--as madly--as wholly--as wondrously--before ever we two get home.”

Already Elaine was retreating from the place.

”Never!” she answered, wildly. ”Never, never, never!--do you hear?--not if it takes this boat a hundred years!” And gropingly, almost blinded by her sense of shame and rage, she fled from the deck and down the stairs, leaving him shaken where he stood.

CHAPTER III

A MIDNIGHT TRAGEDY

Not the slightest alarm had invaded the s.h.i.+p, when Grenville finally urged his senses back to the normal, notwithstanding the unaccustomed suddenness with which the aspect of the day had been reversed.

The storm broke at last, about one in the afternoon, with a deluge of rain and an onslaught of wind that seemed for a time refres.h.i.+ng. The huge steel leviathan appeared to elevate her nose, give her shoulders a shake that settled her firmly in the gray disorder of the elements, and then to accept the rude old contest with a certain indifference, born of well-established prowess.

By two o'clock there was nothing refres.h.i.+ng suggested. A dull, stubborn struggle was waging in the drab of a wild and narrow field of commotion. Chill, musty billows of air, made thick by something that was neither scud nor mist, pounced heavily upon the laboring ”Inca” in a manner chaotic and irregular. The sea was rising sullenly, its waves, like tumultuous cohorts, with ragged white banners, ceaselessly advancing.

With an easy, monotonous a.s.surance the great device of steam and iron plugged steadily onward. It could ride out a sea of tremendously greater violence. It knew from long experience every crest and every abyss of these mountains of air and water. It met huge impacts majestically, with a prow that cleaved them through, while its huge, wet bulk plowed up its mileage with a barely diminished speed.

Few of the pa.s.sengers were actually alarmed. A storm evolved so suddenly, they were confidently informed, would expend itself in one brief spasm of impotent fury and subside almost as it had come. It was all some mere local disturbance that the spell of dry, calm weather had acc.u.mulated too swiftly for any save a violent discharge.

Discomfort increased to a certain pitch; locomotion about the saloon became impracticable. The crew alone remained upon their legs. It seemed like the climax to the storm. But another stage swiftly developed.