Part 28 (2/2)
It was in Hozier's mind to scoff in no measured terms at the absurd theory that he should renounce his oft-won bride because a pair of elderly gentlemen in Bootle had made a bargain in which she was staked against so many bags of gold. But pity for her suffering joined forces with a fine certainty that fortune would not play such a scurvy trick as to rob him of his divinity after leading him through an Inferno to the very gate of Paradise. For that is how he regarded the perils of Fernando Noronha. He was young, and the ethics of youth cling to romance. It seemed only right and just that he should have been proved worthy of Iris ere he gained the heaven of her love. There might be portals yet unseen, with guardian furies waiting to entrap him, and he would brave them all for her dear sake. But his very soul rebelled against the notion that he had become her chosen knight merely to gratify the unholy ardor of some decrepit millionaire. He laughed savagely at the fantasy, and his protest burst into words strange on his lips.
”I shall never give you up to any other man,” he said. ”I have won you by the sword, and, please G.o.d, I shall keep you against all claimants.
Twenty-two men sailed out of Liverpool on board the Andromeda, and it was given to me among the twenty-two that I should pluck you from darkness into light. I had only seen you that day on the wharf, yet I was thinking of you constantly, little dreaming that you were within a few yards of me all the time. I was planning some means of meeting you again when our surly-tempered skipper bade me burst in the door that kept you from me. And that is what I have been doing ever since, Iris--breaking down barriers, smas.h.i.+ng them, whether they were flesh and blood or nature's own obstacles, so that I might not lose you.
Give you up! Not while I live! Why, you yourself dragged me away from certain death when I was lying unconscious on the _Andromeda's_ deck.
A second time, you saved not me alone but the ten others who are left out of the twenty-two, by bringing us back to Grand-pere in the hour that our escape seemed to be a.s.sured had we put out to sea. We are more than quits, dear heart, when we strike a balance of mutual service. We are bound by a tie of comrades.h.i.+p that is denied to most.
And who shall sever it? The man who gains three times the worth of his s.h.i.+p by reason of the very dangers we have shared! To state such a mad proposition is to answer it. Who is he that he should sunder those whom G.o.d has joined together? And what other man and woman now breathing can lay better claim than we to have been joined by the Almighty?”
The strange exigencies of their lives during the past two days had ordained that this should be Philip's first avowal of his feelings.
Under the stress of overpowering impulse he had clasped Iris to his heart when they were parting on the island. In obedience to a stronger law than any hitherto revealed to her innocent consciousness the girl had flown to his arms when he came to the hut. And that was all their love-making, two blissful moments of delirium wrenched from a time of a gaunt tragedy, and followed by a few hours of self-negation. Yet they sufficed--to the man--and the woman is never too ready to count the cost when her heart declares its pa.s.sion.
But the morrow was not to be denied. Its bitter awakening had come.
In the very agony of a sublime withdrawal Iris realized what manner of man this was whom she had determined to thrust aside so that she might keep her troth. She dared not look at him. She could not compel her quivering lips to frame a word of excuse or reiterated resolve. With a heart-breaking cry of sheer anguish she fled from him, running away along the deck with the uncertain steps of some sorely stricken creature of the wild.
He did not try to restrain her. Heedless of the perplexed scowl with which c.o.ke was watching him from the bridge, he looked after her until she vanished in the cabin which had been vacated for her use by the chief engineer of the vessel. Even her manifest distress gave him a sense of riotous joy that was hardly distinguishable from the keenest spiritual suffering.
”Give you up!” he muttered again. ”No, Iris, not if Satan brought every dead Verity to aid the living one in his demand.”
c.o.ke, to whom tact was anathema, chose that unhappy instant to summon him to take charge of the s.h.i.+p. The German master and crew had not caused trouble to their conquerors after the first short struggle.
They washed their hands of responsibility, professed to be satisfied with the written indemnity and promise of reward given by De Sylva, and otherwise placed the resources of the vessel entirely at his disposal.
A more peaceable set of men never existed. Though they numbered sixteen, three more than the usurpers, it was quite certain that the thought of further resistance never entered their minds. If anything, they hailed the adventure with decorous hilarity. It formed a welcome break in the monotony of their drab lives. Of course, they were utterly incredulous as to the ability of a scarecrow like Dom Corria to fulfil his financial pledges. Therein they erred. He was really a very rich man, having followed the ill.u.s.trious example set by generations of South American Presidents in acc.u.mulating a fine collection of gilt-edged scrip during his tenure of office, which said scrip was safely lodged in London, Paris, and New York. But the world always refuses to a.s.sociate rags with affluence, and these worthy Teutons regarded De Sylva and c.o.ke as the leaders of a gang of dangerous lunatics who should be humored in every possible way until a port was reached.
It was precisely that question of a port which had engaged c.o.ke in earnest consultation with De Sylva and San Benavides on the bridge while Iris and Hozier were lacerating each other's feelings on the p.o.o.p.
Apparently, the point was settled when Hozier joined the triumvirate.
c.o.ke glanced at the compa.s.s, and placed the engine-room telegraph at ”Full Speed Ahead,” for the _Unser Fritz_ had once been a British s.h.i.+p, and still retained her English appliances.
”Keep 'er edgin' south a bit,” said he to Hozier. ”There's no knowin'
w'en that crimson cruiser will show up again, but we must try and steal a knot or two afore sundown.”
The order roused Hozier from his stupor of wrathful bewilderment.
”Why south?” he asked. ”If anything, Pernambuco lies north of our present course.”
”We're givin' Pernambuco the go-by. It's Maceio for us, quick as we can get there.”
Hozier was in no humor for conciliatory methods. He turned on his heel, and walked straight to where De Sylva was leaning against the rails.
”Captain c.o.ke tells me that we are not making for Pernambuco,” he said, meeting the older man's penetrating gaze with a glance as firm and self-contained.
”That is what we have arranged,” said Dom Corria.
”It does not seem to have occurred to you that there is one person on board this s.h.i.+p whose interests are vastly more important than yours, senhor.”
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