Volume II Part 25 (1/2)

'Hus.h.!.+' she exclaimed, and walked right aft, raising her hand to her brow, as though she spied something on the horizon astern.

'A delightful day--quite tropical,' exclaimed the Captain, advancing from the p.o.o.p ladder. 'What does Miss Nielsen see?'

'She is always searching for a sail,' said I.

'May I take it,' said he, 'that you have communicated to her what has pa.s.sed between us?'

'Captain,' I said, 'you ask, and perhaps you expect too much. You have been a married man; you must therefore know the ropes, as the sailors say, better than I, who have not yet been in love. All that I can positively a.s.sure you is that Miss Nielsen is exceedingly anxious to return home with me to England.'

'It would be unreasonable in me to expect otherwise--for the present,'

said he.

He left me and joined Helga, and I gathered, by the motions of his arms, that he was discoursing on the beauty of the morning. Presently he went below, and very shortly afterwards returned, bearing a little folding-chair and a cotton umbrella. He placed the chair near the skylight. Helga seated herself and took the umbrella from him, the shade of which she might find grateful, for the sun had now risen high in the heavens--there was heat in the light, with nothing in the wind to temper the rays of the luminary. The Captain offered me a cigar with a bland smile, lighted one himself, and reposed in a careless, flowing way upon the skylight close to Helga; his long whiskers stirred like smoke upon his waistcoat to the blowing of the wind, his loose trousers of blue serge rippled, his chins seemed to roll as though in motion down betwixt the points of his collar. Clearly his study in the direction of posture was animated by a theory of careless, youthful, sailorly elegance; yet never did nautical man so completely answer to one's notions of a West-End hairdresser.

He was studiously courteous, and excessively anxious to recommend himself. I could not discover that he was in the least degree embarra.s.sed by the supposition that I had repeated his conversation to Helga, though her manner must have a.s.sured him that I had told her everything. He was shrewd enough to see, however, that she was in a mood to listen rather than to be talked to, and so in the main he addressed himself to me. He asked me many questions about my lifeboat experiences: particularly wished to know if I thought that my boat, which had been stove in endeavouring to rescue Miss Nielsen and her lamented father, would be replaced.

'Should a fund be raised,' he exclaimed, 'I beg that my name may not be omitted. My humble guinea is entirely at the service of the n.o.ble cause you represent. And what grand end may not a humble guinea be instrumental in promoting! It may help to rescue many wretched souls from the perdition that would otherwise await them were they to be drowned without having time to repent. This is lamentably true of sailors, Mr. Tregarthen. Scarcely a mariner perishes at sea who would not require many years of a devotional life to purge himself of his numerous vices. A humble guinea may also spare many children the misery of being fatherless, and it may shed suns.h.i.+ne upon humble homes by restoring husbands to their wives. You will kindly put me down for a humble guinea.'

I thanked him as though I supposed he was in earnest.

'You will never take charge of a lifeboat again, I hope,' said Helga.

'Why not? I like the work,' I answered.

'See what it has brought you to,' said she.

'Into enjoying the a.s.sociation and friends.h.i.+p of Miss Helga Nielsen!'

exclaimed the Captain. 'Mr. Tregarthen will surely not regret _that_ experience.'

'I feel that I am responsible for his being here, Captain Bunting,' said she, 'and I shall continue wretched till we are journeying to England.'

'I would gladly put my s.h.i.+p about and sail her home to oblige you,'

exclaimed the Captain, 'but for one consideration: _not_ the pecuniary loss that would follow--oh dear no!' he added, slowly shaking his head; 'it would too quickly sever me from a companions.h.i.+p I find myself happy in.'

She bit her lip, looking down with a face of dismay and chagrin, while he eyed her as though seeking for signs of gratification.

'The Canary Islands are within a short sail, I think, Captain,' said I.

'They are,' he responded.

'It would occasion no deviation, I think, for you to heave off some port there--call at Santa Cruz--and send us ash.o.r.e in one of your excellent sharp-ended quarter-boats.'

'That would be giving me no time,' he answered without the least hesitation, and speaking and smiling in the politest, the most bland manner conceivable, 'to prevail upon you and Miss Nielsen to accompany me.'

'But to accompany you where, Captain?' cried I, warming up.

'To the Cape,' he answered.

'Ay, to the Cape,' said I; 'but I understood that you were to call there to discharge a small cargo and await orders.'