Sixth day out. Bump! And we're three days late. Suits me. I don't care if we never get in. ~ Smith's Log
Whoso will, may read in the Hydrographic Office records, the fate of thesteamship Sarah Calkins. Old was Sarah; weather-scarred, wave-battered,suffering from all the internal disorders to which machinery is prone;tipsy of gait, defiant of her own helm, a very hag of the high seas.
Few mourned when she went down in Latitude 43?10' North, Longitude 20?12' West--few indeed, except for the maritime insurance companies. Theylamented and with cause, for the Sarah Calkins was loaded with largequantities of rock, crated in such a manner as to appear valuable, andto induce innocent agents to insure them as pianos, furniture, andsundry merchandise. Such is the guile of them that go down to the seain ships.
For the first time in her disreputable career, the Sarah Calkins obeyedorders, and went to the bottom opportunely in sight of a Danish trampwhich took off her unalarmed captain and crew. Let us leave her to herdeep-sea rest.
The evil that ships do lives after them, and the good is not alwaysinterred with their bones. For the better or worse of Little Miss Grouchand the Tyro, the Sarah Calkins, of whom neither of them had ever heard,left her incidental wreckage strewn over several leagues of Atlantic.One bit of it became involved with the Clan Macgregor's screw, to whateffect has already been indicated. Hours later a larger mass came along,under the impulsion of half a gale, and punched a hole through theleviathan's port side as if it were but paper, just far enough above thewater-line so that every alternate wave could make an easy entry.
The Tyro came up out of deep slumber with a plunge. He heard cries fromwithout, and a strongly bawled order. Above him there was a scurry offeet. The engines stopped. Three bells struck just as if nothing hadhappened. He opened his door and the coldest water he had ever felt onhis skin closed about his feet. The passageway was awash.
Jumping into enough clothing to escape the rigor of the law, the Tyroran across to 129 D and knocked on the door. It opened. Little MissGrouch stood there. Her eyes were sweet with sleep. A long, soft, fluffywhite coat fell to her little bare feet. Her hair, half-loosed,clustered warmly close to the flushed warmth of her face. The Tyrostood, stricken for the moment into silence and forgetfulness by thepower of her beauty.
"What is it?" she asked softly.
He found speech. "Something has happened to the ship."
"I knew you'd come," she said with quiet confidence.
"Aren't you afraid?"
"I was afraid."
A roll of the ship brought the chill water up about her feet. Sheshivered and winced. Stooping he caught her under the knees, and liftedher to his arms. Feeling the easy buoyancy of his strength beneath her,she lapsed against his shoulder, wholly trustful, wholly content.Through the passage he splashed, around the turn, and up the broadcompanionway. Not until he had found a chair in the near corner of thelower saloon did he set her down. Released from his arms, she realizedwith a swift shock the loss of all sense of security. She shot a quickglance at him, half terrified, half wistful. But the Tyro was now allfor action.
"What clothes do you most need?" he asked sharply.
"Clothes? I don't know." She found it hard to adjust the tumult whichhad suddenly sprung up within her, to such considerations.
"Shoes and stockings. A heavy coat. Your warmest dress--where is it?What else?"
"What are you going to do?"
"Go back after your things."
"You mustn't! I won't let you. It's dangerous."
"Later it may be. Not now."
She stretched out her hands to him. "Please don't leave me."
He took the imploring little hands in his own firm grip. "Listen.There's no telling what has happened. We may have to go on deck. We mayeven be ordered to the boats. Warm clothing is an absolute necessity.Think now, and tell me what you need."
She gave him a quick but rather sketchy list. "And your own overcoat andsweater--or I won't let you go. Promise." Her fingers turned in his andcaught at them.
"Very well, tyrant. I'll be back in three minutes."
Had he known what was awaiting him he might have promised with lessconfidence. For there was a dragon in the path in the person of youngMr. Diedrick Sperry, breathing, if not precisely flames, at least,fumes, for he had sat late in the smoking-room, consuming much liquor.At sight of the Tyro, his joke which he had so highly esteemed, returnedto his mind.
"Haberdashin' 'round again, hey?" he shouted, blocking the passagehalfway down to Stateroom 129. "Where's Cissy Wayne?"
"Safe," said the Tyro briefly.
"Safe be damned! You tell me where before you move a step farther." Hestretched out a hand which would have done credit to a longshoreman.
Fight was the last thing that the Tyro wished. More important businesswas pressing. But as Sperry was blocking the way to the conclusion ofthat business, it was manifest that he must be disposed of. Here was notime for diplomacy. The Tyro struck at his bigger opponent, the blowfalling short. With a shout, the other rushed him, and went right onover his swiftly dropped shoulder, until he felt himself clutched at theknees in an iron grip, and heaved clear of the flooded floor.
The stateroom door opposite swung unlatched. With a mighty effort, thewrestler whirled his opponent clean through it, heard his frame crashinto the berth at the back, and slammed the door to after him, only tobe apprised, by a lamentable yell in a deep contralto voice, that he hadmade an unfortunate choice of safe-deposits.
In two leaps he was in room 129 D, whence, peering forth, he beheld hislate adversary emerge and speed down the narrow hall in full andlimping flight, pursued by Mrs. Charlton Denyse clad in inconsiderablepink, and shrieking vengeance as she splashed. Relieved, through thisunexpected alliance, of further interference, the messenger collected aweird assortment of his liege's clothing and an article or two of hisown and returned to her. There was no mistaking the gladness of herrelief.
"You've done very well," she approved. "Though I don't know that Iactually need this lace collar, and I suppose I could brave the perilsof the deep without that turquoise necklace."
"I took what I could get," explained he. "It's my rule of life."
"Did you obey my orders? Yes, I see you did. Put on your overcoat atonce. It's cold. And you're awfully wet," she added, with charmingdismay, looking at his feet.
"They'll dry out. There's quite a little water below."
Little Miss Grouch studied him for a moment of half-smilingconsideration. "I want to ask you something," she said presently.
"Ask, O Queen, and it shall be answered you."
"Would you have come after me just the same if--if I'd been really aMiss Grouch, and red-nosed, and puffy-faced, and a frump, and homely?"
He took the question under advisement, with a gravity suitable to itsimport. "Not just the same," he decided, "not as--as anxiously."
"But you'd have come?"
"Oh, yes, I'd have come."
"I thought so." Her voice was strange. There was a pause. "Do you knowyou're a most exasperating person? It wouldn't make any difference toyou who a woman was, if she needed help, whether she was in thesteerage--"
He leaped to his feet. "The baby!" he cried, "and his mother. I'dforgotten."
On the word he was gone. Little Miss Grouch looked after him, and therewas a light in her eyes which no human being had ever surprisedthere--and which would have vastly surprised herself had she appreciatedthe purport of it.
In five minutes he was back, having calmly violated one of the mostrigid of ship's rules, in bringing steerage passengers up to the firstcabin.
"Here's the Unparalleled Urchin," he announced, "right as a trivet.Here, let's make a little camp." He pulled around a settee, establishedthe frightened but quiet mother and the big-eyed child on it, drew up achair for himself next to the girl and said, "Now we can waitcomfortably for whatever comes."
News it was that came, in the course of half an hour. An official, thegenuineness of whose relief was patent, announced that the leak wasabove water-line, that it was being patched, that the ship was on herway and that there was absolutely no danger, his statement being backedup by the resumed throb of the engines and the sound of many hammers onthe port side. Stateroom holders in D and E, however, he added, wouldbest arrange to remain in the saloon until morning.
So the Tyro conveyed his adoptive charges back to the steerage, andreturned to his other and more precious charge. There he found JudgeEnderby in attendance.
"Isn't there something more I can get from your room?" the Tyro asked ofLittle Miss Grouch, after he had greeted the judge.
She shook her head with a smile.
"So the dumb has found a tongue, eh?" remarked the lawyer.
"Emergency use only," explained the Tyro.
"Well, my legal advice," pursued the jurist with a reassuring grimace atthe girl, "is that you can make hay while the moon shines, for I don'tthink any officer is going to concern himself with your little affairjust at present. But my personal advice," he added significantly, "inthe interests of your own peace of mind, is that you go and sit on therudder the rest of the voyage. Safety first!"
"I think he's an awfully queer old man," pouted Little Miss Grouch, asthe judge sauntered away.
"Don't abuse my counsel," said the Tyro.
"He isn't your counsel. He's my counsel. I paid him five whole dollarsto be."
"Hoots, lassie! I paid him ten."
"You want my house," said Little Miss Grouch, aggrieved, "and you wantmy lawyer. Is there anything else of mine you'd like to lay claim to?"
It may have been accident--the unprincipled opportunist of a godling whorules these matters will league himself with any chance--that the Tyro'seyes fell upon her hand, which lay, pink and warmly half-curled in herlap, and remained there. It certainly was not accident that the hand washastily moved.
"Do you suppose Baby Karl and his mother are safe?" she inquired, in avoice of extreme detachment.
"Just as safe as we are. By the way, you heard what Judge Enderbysuggested to me about 'safety first'?"
Her face took on an expression of the severest innocence. "No. Somethingstupid, I dare say."
"He advised me to go and sit on the rudder for the rest of the voyage."
"Wouldn't it be awfully wet--and lonely?"
"Unspeakably. Particularly the latter."
"Then I wouldn't do it," she counseled.
"I won't," he promised. "But, Miss Grouch, the dry land may be just aslonely as the wet ocean."
"Haven't you any friends in Europe?"
"No. Unless you count Lord Guenn one."
"You never met him until I introduced you, did you?"
"No. But he's asked me to come and visit him at Guenn Oaks."
"Has he! Why?"
The Tyro laughed. "There's something very unflattering about yoursurprise. Not for my beaux yeux alone. It seems he's sort of inheritedme from a careless ancestor."
"I came to him by marriage."
"So he tells me. Also that you're going to Guenn Oaks."
"Yes."
"Well?"
"Why 'well'? I didn't say anything."
"You didn't. I'm waiting to hear you."
"What?"
"Tell me whether I'm to go or not."
"What have I to do with it?"
"Everything."
"Your servitude ends the moment we touch land."
"It will never end," said the Tyro in a low voice.
Little Miss Grouch peeked up at him from under the fascinating, slantedbrows, and immediately regretted her indiscretion. What she saw in hisface stirred within her a sweet and tremulous panic, the like of whichshe had not before experienced.
"Please don't look at me like that," she said petulantly. "What willpeople think?"
"People are, for once, minding their own businesses, bless 'em."
"Well, anyway, you make me n-n-nervous."
"Am I to come to Guenn Oaks?"
"I'll tell you to-morrow," she fenced.
"To-morrow I shan't be speaking to you."
"Why not?--oh, I forgot. Still, you might write," she dimpled.
"Would you answer?"
"I'll consider it."
"How long would consideration require?"
"Was there ever such a human question-mark! Please, kind sir, I'mawfully tired and sleepy. Won't you let me off now?"
"Forgive me," said the Tyro with such profound contrition that theWondrous Vision's heart smote her, for she had said, in her quest ofmeans of defense, the thing which most distinctly was not true.
Never had she felt less sleepy. Within her was a terrifying andquivering tumult. She closed her eyes upon the outer world, which seemednow all comprised in one personality. Within the closed lids she hadshut the imprint of the tired, lean, alert, dependable face. Within thedoors of her heart, which she was now striving to close, was the memoryof his protective manliness, of his unobtrusive helpfulness, of thetonic of his frank and healthy humor--and above all of the strength andcomfort of his arms as he had caught her up out of the flood. As shemused, the slumber-god crept in behind those blue-veined shutters ofthought, and melted her memories into dreams.
While consciousness was still feebly efficient, but control had passedfrom the surrendering mind, she stretched out a groping hand. The Tyro'sclosed over it very gently. At the corner of her delicate mouth themerest ghost of a smile flickered and passed. Little Miss Grouch wentdeep into the land of dreams, with her knight keeping watch and wardover her.
Came then the destroying ogre, in the form of the captain, and passedon; came then the wicked fairy, in the person of Mrs. Charlton Denyse,and passed on, not without some gnashing of metaphorical teeth (her own,I regret to state, she had left in her berth); came also the god fromthe machine, in the shape of Judge Willis Enderby, with his friend Dr.Alderson, and paused near the group.
"Love," observed the jurist softly, "is nine tenths opportunity and therest importunity. I hope our young prot間?doesn't forget that oddtenth. It's important."
"It seems to me," observed his companion suspiciously, "that you boastconsiderable wisdom about the tender passion."
The ablest honest lawyer in New York sighed. "I am old who once wasyoung, but ego in Arcadia fui and I have not forgotten." Then the twoold friends passed on.