Part 33 (2/2)
The saloon was brilliant with light and life, cheerful with voices, for the crowded diners had now found their tongues, presu bottles Laughter?--Oh yes, plenty of that--airy feuffaw Knives and forks clattered, corks popped Oh, plenty of light and life here; but without--the dark waters, deep and wide, the di black beneath the stars ”For ever--in life and in death”
”And how rave?”
said the captain presently
”Nuggets? Fever's old-dust,” answered Roden wearily ”The place is a fraud”
His _vis-a-vis_ atching hi which she had so valiantly repressed cae which had crept over his appearance He seeh he had gone through a hard, hard struggle, bodily and mental, of late And from the bronzed complexion, wind-swept, sun-tanned by e double scar seemed thrown out more proh ain thus
She too showed traces of the struggle There was a tired, wistful look about the eyes, the suspicion of a melancholy droop at the corners of the mouth, which imparted to her face a very different expression to that of the self-loving, self-indulgent, and rather heartless Mona who easily, sensuously, in her haasfontein, now o Had she too suffered? Why then had she been found so la when put to the ordeal? Surely a nature which had proved so weak could have no great capacity for suffering, at any rate, for any length of time
No, it was all a most miserablehad shaken him more than he cared to allow The wound, barely skinned over during these six ain and bled afresh--bled copiously More careless, more terse became the tone of his conversation, and beneath it lurked a biting cynical sting, as of the lash of a whip--Not altogether could his glance refrain fro the tender, wistful appeal of those clear hazel eyes, there shot from his own a flash as of contempt too deep even for resentainst his oeakness
The dinner was over at last, and several of the ladies were already leaving the saloon Mona rose
”I think I will go on deck for a little,” she said ”Is this delicious s to continue, Captain Cheyne? I aallantly that he devoutly trusted it would, and she left them And now that her presence ithdrawn, it seemed to Roden that a blank had fallen Yet he had but to ascend the companion stairs It seemed to him that her very announcement embodied an invitation Still he reh nailed there And nailed there he was--by the long, jagged, rusty, and passingly strong iron of an unbending pride She had turned fro to her feet now? No--no A thousand ti hiirl, too”
”She seee?”
”Not exactly that She came on board at Port Elizabeth, and I ot your letter saying you were going to join us at Cape Town, I moved those other people a place up At any rate, we'll have a snug corner for the voyage, eh?”
Another surprise was in store for Roden A group of ers who had occupied places at the far end of the saloon was passing thelance was attracted by the face of one of these It was that of Lalances s than the other the young surgeon gave a violent start, and a half-uttered exclaaze of thehimself, he passed out with the others
Lambert, of all people in the world! What on earth was the fellow doing here on board? Oh, the reason was not far to seek, he thought, in derisive pity for his oeakness, hich during the last hour he had been so exhaustively battling And yet things didn't see alone at the captain's table, while Laht away at the other end of the saloon That was not the explanation It ether, just as his own presence there was As before at Doppersdorp, so now, La in the affair
”Seeot all Doppersdorp on board,” he said
”First Miss Ridsdale, then that cotton-headed chap who just went out
Now trot out a few hed
”So you knew each other before, did you? Deep dog, Musgrave, deep dog!”
”Oh yes, considering I was there the best part of a year,” he replied, offhandedly ”But that fellow you saw just now ood bit of a sweep I don't care about having much to do with him”
Lambert's presence on board did aith the expediency, or indeed the advisability of reticence, and it was as well to tell his own story first So they sat there a little longer, and he gave Cheyne a sort of outline of a good deal--though not all--that had befallen hiood-bye to each other last
”Corave,” said Cheyne, as he rose froe a bit now, but I'll send and let you knohen I coers were sitting about, or walking the deck, as Roden ereatin the zenith, their reflectionsthe phosphorescent flashes glancing like will-o'-the-wisps rising and falling in the dark depths The loom of the coastline was hardly discernible, for the captain chose to keep plenty of sea rooed shore; but the reat deep, was delicious; and ever with the voices and laughter of the passengers hty churning throb of the propeller, and the soft, soughing wash of the scintillating, blade-like wave curving away on each side of the cut-water of the great vessel
Roden, loolad, for his eyes rested not upon that well-known forood faith he did not feel certain whether he was or not, so over-powering had been the shock of the surprise Then, leaning over the bulwarks, he gazed meditatively forth across the starlit waste of black waters to where the uncertain loo on their starboard quarter, and as he did so all the morbid side of his character came to the fore Was ever a more utterly forlorn, aimless, God-forsaken wanderer afloat on life's sea? Here he was returning, hat object he knew not, poorer in pocket, a good ten years chipped out of his life--at least it see to look forward to on this side the rave And by a strange coincidence, separated fro i forth through the open scuttle at the sah Mona turned away fro, she took out a sht Yes, she would do it Only a few drops Sleep hat she wanted--sleep, sleep--blessed--oblivious sleep, sweet, illusion-bringing sleep