"Understand me--help me!"
He was ill at ease. He feared with all his soul to meet the one great subject.
"When we thought we were going to die I told you it seemed as if I had lived a life in a few hours--that I did not seem like the same person as I looked into my thoughts. Captain Mayo, that is true. It is more apparent to me now when I have had time to search my soul. Oh, I am not the Alma Marston who has been spoiled and indulged--a fool leaping here and there with every impulse--watching a girl in my set do a silly thing and then doing a sillier thing in order to astonish her. That has been our life in the city. I never knew what it meant to be a mere human being, near death. You know you saved me from that death!"
"I only did what a man ought to do, Miss Marston."
"Perhaps. But you did it, that"s the point. There are other men--" She hesitated. "I have had a talk with Mr. Bradish," she told him. "It was a mistake. You saved me from that mistake. You did it in the cabin of the schooner. He has told me. It was better for me than saving my life."
"But because a man isn"t a sailor--isn"t used to danger--" he expostulated.
"That is not it. I say I have just had a talk with Mr. Bradish! I have found out exactly what he is. I did not find it out when I danced with him. But now that I have come near to dying with him I have found him out." The red banners in her cheeks signaled both shame and indignation.
"A coward will show all his nature before he gets himself in hand again, and Mr. Bradish has shown me that he is willing to ruin and disgrace me in order to make profit for himself. And there is no more to be said about him!" She paused.
"Captain Mayo, I know what idea you must have of me--of a girl who would do what I have done! But you don"t have half the scorn for me I have for myself--for the girl I was. But I have my self-respect now! I respect the woman that I am at this moment after that experience! Perhaps you don"t understand. I do! I"m glad I have that self-respect. I shall face what is ahead of me. I shall do right from now on." She spoke quickly and pa.s.sionately, and he wanted to say something, but his sailor tongue halted. "I am not going to bring up a certain matter--not now! It"s too sacred. I am too miserably ashamed! Again, Captain Mayo, I say that I want to stand with you as man to man! I want to render service for what you have done for me. You have lost everything out of your life that you value. I want you to have it back. Will you listen to me now?"
"Yes, Miss Marston."
"You go to my father with a letter from me. I do not believe he knows what kind of methods have been practised by his understrappers, but he can find out. You tell him that he must find out--that he must make them confess. You tell him that this is a man"s fight, and that you are fighting back with all the strength that you can command. You tell him that you have me hidden, and that I cannot get away--as my own letter will tell him. You tell him that he must make a fair exchange with you--give you back what is yours before he can have what is his."
Mayo walked backward limply, feeling for the wall with his hands behind him, and leaned against it.
"You are single-handed--it"s a big game they play up in the city when they are after money--and you must take what cards are offered," she insisted, displaying the shrewdness of the Marston nature.
"You mean to say that I"m going to your father as if I were holding you for ransom?" he gasped.
"Something like that," she returned, eagerly. "The only way you"ll get what you want--and get it quickly--is by a good bluff. I have had some good samples of your courage, Captain Mayo. You can do it beautifully."
"But I"m not going to do it!"
"I say you are!"
"Not by a--" His feelings were carrying him away. He was forgetting that these dealings were with an impulsive girl. His anger was mounting. She was putting him on the plane of a blackleg.
"Go ahead and talk as strongly as you like, Captain Mayo. It will make it seem like man"s business between us."
"Those tricks may be all right in Wall Street, but they don"t do for me.
And you"ve got a pretty poor opinion of me if you think I"ll do it."
"Don"t be quixotic," she protested, impatiently. "We are living in up-to-date times, Captain Mayo. Some of those underlings have played a nasty trick on you. They must be exposed."
"This is a girl"s crazy notion!"
"Captain Mayo, is this the way you help me pay my debt?"
"You don"t owe me anything."
"And now you pay me an insult! Are my honor as a girl and my life worth nothing? You have saved both."
"I don"t know how to talk to you. I haven"t had any experience in talking with women. I simply say that I"m not going to your father in any such manner. Certainly not!"
"Don"t you realize what I have offered you?" she pleaded. "You are throwing my sacrifice in my face. As the case stands now, I can hurry off to the home of some girl friend and make up a little story of a foolish lark, and my father will never know what has been happening. He expects me to do a lot of silly things."
"That"s your business--and his," he returned, dryly.
"Captain Mayo, I have been trying to show you that I am fit to be considered something besides a silly girl. I wanted you to know that I have a sense of obligation. The plan may seem like a girl"s romantic notion. But it isn"t. It"s bold, and your case heeds boldness. I was trying to show you that I"m not a coward. I was going to confess to my father what I have done and start on the level with him. You throw it all in my face--you insult my plan by calling it crazy."
"It is," he insisted, doggedly. "And I"m in bad enough as it is!"
"Oh, you"re afraid, then?"
He frowned. Her sneer seemed gratuitous injury.
He did not understand that variety of feminine guile which seeks to goad to action one who refuses to be led.
"I admire boldness in a man when his case is desperate and he is trying to save himself. I have lived among men who are bold in going after what they want."
"I have had a little experience with that kind of land pirates, and I don"t like the system."
"I shall not make any unnecessary sacrifices," she de-clared, tartly, but there were tears in her eyes. "I did what I could to help you when you were trying to save me. Why are you so ungenerous as to refuse to help me now?"
"It"s taking advantage of you--of your position."
"But I offer it--I beg of you to do it."
"I will not do it."
"You absolutely refuse?"
"Yes, Miss Marston."
"Then I shall leave you to your own fate, Captain Mayo. You don"t expect me to go to my father with the story, do you?"
"Certainly not"."
"I shall go ahead now and protect myself the best I can. I am sure that Captain Downs will keep my secret. I shall forget that I ever sailed on that schooner. I suppose you will black yourself up and run away again!"
"I am going to New York."
"To be put in jail?"
"Probably."
"You make me very angry. After you have shown that you can fight, just when you ought to fight the hardest you slink bade to be whipped."
"Yes, Miss Marston, if you care to put it that way."
"Then, good-by!"