Part 4 (2/2)
”Well caught,” she smiled, and, taking a fresh cigarette, she bent over a table-lamp and lighted it herself. All the time her eyes were on me, I felt that she was studying one over her cigarette, with something in view.
”Is it still raining?”
”Yes, Mrs. Johns.”
”Will you get a wrap from Karen and bring it to me on deck? I--I want air to-night.”
The forward companionway led down into the main cabin. She moved toward it, her pale green gown fading into the shadow. At the foot of the steps she turned and looked back at me. I had been stupid enough, but I knew then that she had something to say to me, something that she would not trust to the cabin walls. I got the wrap.
She was sitting in a deck-chair when I found her, on the lee side of the after house, a position carefully chosen, with only the storeroom windows behind. I gave her the wrap, and she flung it over her without rising.
”Sit down, Leslie,” she said, pointing to the chair beside her. And, as I hesitated, ”Don't be silly, boy. Else Lee and her sister may be as blind as they like. You are not a sailor, or a butler, either. I don't care what you are: I'm not going to ask any questions. Sit down; I have to talk to some one.”
I sat on the edge of the chair, somewhat uneasy, to tell the truth. The crew were about on a night like that, and at any moment Elsa Lee might avail herself of the dummy hand, as she sometimes did, and run up for a breath of air or a glimpse of the sea.
”Just now, Mrs. Johns;” I said, ”I am one of the crew of the Ella, and if I am seen here--”
”Oh, fudge!” she retorted impatiently. ”My reputation isn't going to be hurt, and the man's never is. Leslie, I am frightened--you know what I mean.”
”Turner?”
”Yes.”
”You mean--with the captain?”
”With any one who happens to be near. He is dangerous. It is Vail now. He thinks Mr. Vail is in love with his wife. The fact is that Vail--well, never mind about that. The point is this: this afternoon he had a dispute with Williams, and knocked him down. The other women don't know it. Vail told me. We have given out that Williams is seasick. It will be Vail next, and, if he puts a hand on him, Vail will kill him; I know him.”
”We could stop this drinking.”
”And have him shoot up the s.h.i.+p! I have been thinking all evening, and only one thing occurs to me. We are five women and two men, and Vail refuses to be alarmed. I want you to sleep in the after house. Isn't there a storeroom where you could put a cot?”
”Yes,” I agreed, ”and I'll do it, of course, if you are uneasy, but I really think--”
”Never mind what you really think. I haven't slept for three nights, and I'm showing it.” She made a motion to rise, and I helped her up.
She was a tall woman, and before I knew it she had put both her hands on my shoulders.
”You are a poor butler, and an indifferent sailor, I believe,” she said, ”but you are rather a dear. Thank you.”
She left me, alternately uplifted and sheepish. But that night I took a blanket and a pillow into the storeroom, and spread my six feet of length along the greatest diameter of a four-by-seven pantry.
And that night, also, between six and seven bells, with the storm subsided and only a moderate sea, Schwartz, the second mate, went overboard--went without a cry, without a sound.
Singleton, relieving him at four o'clock, found his cap lying near starboard, just forward of the after house. The helmsman and the two men in the lookout reported no sound of a struggle. The lookout had seen the light of his cigar on the forecastle-head at six bells (three o'clock). At seven bells he had walked back to the helmsman and commented cheerfully on the break in the weather. That was the last seen of him.
The alarm was raised when Singleton went on watch at four o'clock. The Ella was heaved to and the lee boat lowered. At the same time life-buoys were thrown out, and patent lights. But the early summer dawn revealed a calm ocean; and no sign of the missing mate.
At ten o'clock the order was reluctantly given to go on.
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