"Quite well," said the girl. "If you take me home, Sam, you shall see her, and be forgiven by her, too."
"Thankee, miss," said the gratified steward.
"And what about your foot, Wilks?" said Hardy, somewhat taken aback by this arrangement.
"Foot, sir?" said the unconscious Mr. Wilks; "wot foot?"
"Why, the bad one," said Hardy, with a significant glance.
"Ho, that one?" said Mr. Wilks, beating time and waiting further revelations.
"Do you think you ought to use it much?" inquired Hardy.
Mr. Wilks looked at it, or, to be more exact, looked at both of them, and smiled weakly. His previous idea recurred to him with renewed force now, and several things in the young man"s behaviour, hitherto disregarded, became suddenly charged with significance. Miss Nugent looked on with an air of cynical interest.
"Better not run any risk," said Hardy, gravely. "I shall be very pleased to see Miss Nugent home, if she will allow me."
"What is the matter with it?" inquired Miss Nugent, looking him full in the face.
Hardy hesitated. Diplomacy, he told himself, was one thing; lying another. He pa.s.sed the question on to the rather badly used Mr. Wilks.
"Matter with it?" repeated that gentleman, glaring at him reproachfully. "It"s got shootin" pains right up it. I suppose it was walking miles and miles every day in London, looking for the cap"n, was too much for it."
"Is it too bad for you to take me home, Sam?" inquired Miss Nugent, softly.
The perturbed Mr. Wilks looked from one to the other. As a sportsman his sympathies were with Hardy, but his duty lay with the girl.
"I"ll do my best, miss," he said; and got up and limped, very well indeed for a first attempt, round the room.
Then Miss Nugent did a thing which was a puzzle to herself for some time afterwards. Having won the victory she deliberately threw away the fruits of it, and declining to allow the steward to run any risks, accepted Hardy"s escort home. Mr. Wilks watched them from the door, and with his head in a whirl caused by the night"s proceedings mixed himself a stiff gla.s.s of grog to set it right, and drank to the health of both of them.
The wind had abated somewhat in violence as they walked home, and, moreover, they had their backs to it. The walk was slower and more enjoyable in many respects than the walk out. In an unusually soft mood she replied to his remarks and stole little critical glances up at him. When they reached the house she stood a little while at the gate gazing at the starry sky and listening to the crash of the sea on the beach.
"It is a fine night," she said, as she shook hands.
"The best I have ever known," said Hardy. "Good-bye."
CHAPTER XVII
The weeks pa.s.sed all too quickly for James Hardy. He saw Kate Nugent at her own home; met her, thanks to the able and hearty a.s.sistance of Mr. Wilks, at Fullalove Alley, and on several occasions had the agreeable task of escorting her back home.
He cabled to his father for news of the ill.u.s.trious stowaway immediately the Conqueror was notified as having reached Port Elizabeth. The reply--"Left ship"--confirmed his worst fears, but he cheerfully accepted Mrs. Kingdom"s view that the captain, in order to relieve the natural anxiety of his family, had secured a pa.s.sage on the first vessel homeward bound.
Captain Hardy was the first to reach home. In the early hours of a fine April morning the Conqueror steamed slowly into Sunwich Harbour, and in a very short time the town was revelling in a description of Captain Nugent"s first voyage before the mast from lips which were never tired of repeating it. Down by the waterside Mr. Nathan Smith found that he had suddenly attained the rank of a popular hero, and his modesty took alarm at the publicity afforded to his action. It was extremely distasteful to a man who ran a quiet business on old-fashioned lines and disbelieved in advertis.e.m.e.nt. He lost three lodgers the same day.
Jem Hardy was one of the few people in Sunwich for whom the joke had no charms, and he betrayed such an utter lack of sympathy with his father"s recital that the latter accused him at last of wanting a sense of humour.
"I don"t see anything amusing in it," said his son, stiffly.
Captain Hardy recapitulated one or two choice points, and was even at some pains to explain them.
"I can"t see any fun in it," repeated his son. "Your behaviour seems to me to have been deplorable."
"What?" shouted the captain, hardly able to believe his ears.
"Captain Nugent was your guest," pursued the other; "he got on your ship by accident, and he should have been treated decently as a saloon pa.s.senger."
"And been apologized to for coming on board, I suppose?" suggested the captain.
"It wouldn"t have been amiss," was the reply.
The captain leaned back in his chair and regarded him thoughtfully. "I can"t think what"s the matter with you, Jem," he said.
"Ordinary decent ideas, that"s all," said his son, scathingly.
"There"s something more in it than that," said the other, positively. "I don"t like to see this love-your-enemy business with you, Jem; it ain"t natural to you. Has your health been all right while I"ve been away?"
"Of course it has," said his son, curtly. "If you didn"t want Captain Nugent aboard with you why didn"t you put him ash.o.r.e? It wouldn"t have delayed you long. Think of the worry and anxiety you"ve caused poor Mrs. Kingdom."
"A holiday for her," growled the captain.
"It has affected her health," continued his son; "and besides, think of his daughter. She"s a high-spirited girl, and all Sunwich is laughing over her father"s mishap."
"Nugent fell into his own trap," exclaimed the captain, impatiently. "And it won"t do that girl of his any harm to be taken down a peg or two. Do her good. Knock some of the nonsense out of her."
"That"s not the way to speak of a lady," said Jem, hotly.
The offended captain regarded him somewhat sourly; then his face changed, and he got up from his chair and stood before his son with consternation depicted on every feature.
"You don"t mean to tell me," he said, slowly; "you don"t mean to tell me that you"re thinking anything of Kate Nugent?"
"Why not?" demanded the other, defiantly; "why shouldn"t I?"
Captain Hardy, whistling softly, made no reply, but still stood eyeing him.
"I thought there was some other reason for your consideration besides "ordinary decent ideas,"" he said, at last. "When did it come on? How long have you had it?"
Mr. Hardy, jun., in a studiously unfilial speech, intimated that these pleasantries were not to his taste.
"No, of course not," said the captain, resuming his seat. "Well, I"m sorry if it"s serious, Jem, but I never dreamt you had any ideas in that quarter. If I had I"d have given old Nugent the best bunk on the ship and sung him to sleep myself. Has she given you any encouragement?"
"Don"t know," said Jem, who found the conversation awkward.
"Extraordinary thing," said the captain, shaking his head, "extraordinary. Like a play."