Part 4 (2/2)
”To save her from--from committing herself. It isn't fair to her to let her do it now. She ought to wait till she gets back home, among her own people. You see she wants to--She--she says that s.h.i.+p captains can--”
He caught his breath, and bent nearer, but with his face half averted.
His voice sank to an almost inaudible murmur--”that s.h.i.+p captains can marry people.”
”Ah!” gasped Lord James. But he recovered on the instant. ”Gad! that _is_ a surprise, old man. Always the lady's privilege, though, to name the day, y'know. I s.h.i.+pped a stewardess to wait on the women--had hoped they would all have been saved. She'll do for lady's maid. Also brought along some women's togs, in case of emergencies. As for yourself, between mine and Megg's and his own wardrobes, my man can rig you up a presentable outfit. Clever chap, that Wilton.”
”You've gone back to a valet again!” reproached Blake, momentarily diverted. Then his fists clenched and his brows met in a frown of self-disgust. ”Lord! for me to forget for a second! Look here, Jimmy, you're clean off. You don't savvy a little bit. Don't you see the point? I can't let her commit herself now--here! You know I can't. It wouldn't be fair to her, and you know it.”
Lord James met his look with a clear and unfaltering gaze, and answered steadily: ”That all depends on one thing, Tom. If she really loves you--”
”D'you think she's the kind to do it, if she didn't?” demanded Blake.
”No, that's not the point, at all. I've tried to be square, so far. She saw what I'm like when I cut loose--there on the s.h.i.+p. I was two-thirds drunk when the cyclone flung us ash.o.r.e. No excuse--except that all of them had turned me down from the first--there at Cape Town. Yes, she knows just what I'm like when the craving is on me. Yesterday, down there at the south headland, before the lion came around, I gave her some idea of what I've done--all that.”
”You've lived a cleaner life than most who're considered eligible!”
exclaimed Lord James. ”I know that with respect to women, you're the cleanest--”
”Eligible!” broke in Blake. ”No man is that, far as she's concerned, unless it's you, Jimmy.”
”Chuck it! You're always knocking yourself. But about this plan that's bothering you? Out with it.”
”That's talking! All right, here it is, straight--I want you to get back aboard and steam away, fast as you can hike. You can run into Port Mozambique, if you're going north, and arrange for a boat to call by for me.”
”You're daft!” cried Lord James. ”Daft! Mad as a hatter! Can you fancy for a moment I'd go off and leave you here?”
”Guess you can't help yourself, Jimmy. The most you can do is force me to take to the jungle. You can't get me aboard. I tell you, I've figured it all out. I won't go aboard and let her do--what she's planning to do. You ought to know. Jimmy, that when I say a thing, I mean it. She's not going to set eyes on me again until after she's back in America. Is that plain?”
”Tom--old man! that's like you!” cried the Englishman, and again he gripped the other's rough hand. ”I see now what you're driving at. It's a thing few men would have the bigness to do. You're giving up a certainty, because your love for her is great enough, unselfish enough to consider only her good. D'you fancy I could do such a thing? You're risking everything. Shows you're fit, even for her!”
”It's little enough--for her!” put in Blake.
”That's like you to say it,” rejoined his friend. ”See here, old man.
You've made a clean breast of it all. I should be no less candid. You know now that I met her before--was all those weeks with her aboard s.h.i.+p. Need I tell you that I, too, love her?”
”You?” growled Blake. ”But of course! I don't blame you. You couldn't help it.”
”It's been an odd shuffling of the cards,” remarked his friend. ”What if--Aren't you afraid there may be a new deal, Tom? If you don't come aboard, she and I will be together at least as far as Zanzibar, and probably all the way to Aden, before I can find some one else to take her on to England.”
”What of that?” rejoined Blake. ”Think I don't know you're square, after the months we roughed-it together?”
”Then--But I can't leave you here in this h.e.l.l-hole! You've no right to ask me to do that, Tom. If I could bring my guns ash.o.r.e and stay with you--But she'll never be more in need of some one, if you insist upon your plan. I say! I have it--We'll slip you aboard after dark. You can lie in covert till we reach Port Mozambique. I trust I'm clever enough to keep her diverted that long. Can put it that you're outfitting--all that, y' know.”
”Say, that's not so bad,” admitted Blake, half persuaded. ”I could slip ash.o.r.e, soon as we ran into harbor, leaving her a note to tell her why.”
”Right-o, Tammas! But wait. I'll go you one better. You can write your note and give it out that you've s.h.i.+fted to another s.h.i.+p. But you'll stay aboard with us, under cover. Of all the steamers that touch at Aden, one will soon come along with parties whom either she or I know.
Then off she goes to the tight little island, and we follow after in our little tramp or on another liner. Hey, Tammas?”
”Well, I don't know,” hesitated Blake. ”It sounds all right.”
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