"Well, suppose for the rest of the day you consider me the person you quite like best in the world."
She considered it.
"All right. I don"t mind for the rest of the day. And you promise to forget all those girls over in England, and pretend that I am the nicest girl you know?"
"I promise," said Percival.
When the second gong for dinner sounded, the two white-clad figures were still leaning on the railing in the secluded angle made by two life-boats. The color had gone from the sky, but every moment the purpling waters were growing more vivid, more intense, more thrillingly alive to the mystery of the coming night. The Honorable Percival"s cap was on Bobby"s head, and his coat was about her shoulders. As to himself, he seemed strangely indifferent to the tumbled state of his wind-blown hair and the shocking informality of his shirt-sleeves.
It was quite evident that for the time being, at least, he had thrown discretion to the winds, and was sailing away from his memories at the rate of sixteen knots an hour.
That night at dinner the captain followed Mrs. Weston"s advice and took soundings. Nothing was lost upon him, from Bobby"s late arrival in a somewhat sophisticated white evening gown that she had hitherto scorned, to the new and becoming way in which her hair was arranged. It did not require a Nelson eye to discover a suppressed excitement under her high spirits or to detect the side-play that was taking place between her and the apparently stolid Englishman at her right.
Captain Boynton looked at Mrs. Weston and raised one eyebrow; she nodded comprehendingly. Later in the evening, when he dropped into a steamer-chair beside her, he asked if she had seen Bobby.
"Not since dinner. All the young people have been asking for her. Did you look in the writing-room ?"
"I"ve looked everywhere except in the coal-bunkers," said the captain, gruffly. "Talk to me about responsibility. I"d rather run a schooner up the Hoogli than to steer that girl of mine."
"You"ve wakened to your duty rather late, haven"t you!" asked Mrs.
Weston. "I suppose it"s the Englishman who is making you anxious?"
The captain dropped his voice.
"Did you see the way she looked at him at dinner? By George! it was enough to melt the leg off an iron pot!"
"It"s been coming for a week," said Mrs. Weston, wisely. "If you really oppose it, there is no time to be lost."
"Oppose it? Of course I oppose it. What"s to be done?"
"The situation requires delicate handling. Would you like me to try and help you out--share the responsibility of chaperoning her, I mean?"
"Permanently?" asked the captain, shooting a quizzical glance at her from under his heavy brows.
"You wretch!" said Mrs. Weston, flushing. "Just to Hong-Kong, I mean."
That night about ten o"clock the captain, who happened to be crossing the steerage deck, came quite unexpectedly upon Percival and Bobby groping their way through the dark.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Roberta!" he called sternly. "What are you doing out here?"]
"Roberta," he called sternly, "What are you doing out here?"
"Oh," cried Bobby, breathlessly, feeling her way around the hatch, "we"ve been out on the prow for hours, and it was simply gorgeous.
All inky black except the phosph.o.r.escence, miles and miles of it! And some dolphins, all covered with silver, kept racing with us and leaping clear out of the water, like wriggly bits of fire. And the stars--why, Mr. Has...o...b.."s been telling me the most fascinating things I ever heard about stars. We"ve had a perfectly wonderful time, haven"t we, Mr. Has...o...b..?"
"Topping!" said the Honorable Percival.
VIII
IN THE CROW"S-NEST
The sea-voyage of thirty days, which in the beginning had threatened to stretch into eternity, now seemed to be racing into the past with a swiftness that was incredible. To Percival the one desirable thing in life had come to be the sailing of the high seas under favoring winds, in a big ship, with Bobby Boynton on board, and a conscience that had agreed to remain quiescent until port was reached.
Not that Percival"s conscience succ.u.mbed without a struggle; he had to a.s.sure it repeatedly that he would refrain from rousing in Bobby any hopes that might be realized. The moment she showed the slightest sign of taking his attentions seriously he would kindly, but firmly, make her understand. It would not be the first time he had had to do this. He recalled several instances with sad complacency. But a man cannot always be sacrificing himself. A mild flirtation, with a girl whom he never expected to see again was surely a harmless way of consoling himself for the harsh treatment he had recently received from another of her s.e.x.
The one fly in his amber these days was Andy Black; only Andy was not a fixed object. His activities were endless, and, strangely enough, they exerted a powerful influence on Percival, causing him to change his entire mode of life from his hour of getting up to his hour of retiring.
In order to get half an hour"s conversation with Bobby Boynton it was necessary to outwit Andy, and he was devoting himself a.s.siduously to the task.
What complicated the matter was that Andy had embraced him in his general affection for humanity, and despite persistent snubbing continued to treat him as the friend of his bosom. Percival could hate him contemptuously when he was out of sight, but he found it difficult to keep up the dislike when the fat, boyish fellow sat on the sofa opposite his berth and poured out his innermost confidences.
"You see," he would say plaintively as he reached for Percival"s silver shoe-horn, "I never slide into love, like most fellows. I always splash right in, head first. That"s what I did the first night I came on board, and I haven"t come up yet. When I do, she"ll hit me in the head. She won"t have me; you see if she does."
Of course Percival agreed with him, but in the meanwhile he wondered what Bobby could find in him to afford her such constant amus.e.m.e.nt.
One sparkling morning when the white caps were dancing on the blue water, and every bit of loose canvas was spanking the wind for joy, Bobby announced that she was going again to the crow"s-nest. She had circled the deck some ten times between her two cavaliers, and the difficulty of keeping mental step with either in the presence of the other may have influenced her sudden decision.
"What do you want to do that for?" said Andy, whose weight made him cautious. "It"s a mean climb, and there"s nothing to see when you get up there."
"There"s everything to see," said Bobby and she looked at Percival.
Ten days ago nothing could have induced him to do such an unconventional and conspicuous thing. He remembered the exact phrase he had applied to it when told by the Scotchman of Bobby"s previous adventure.
"Characteristically American," he had remarked, with a disparaging shrug.
Now, with a.s.sumed languor, he said, "I don"t mind going with you."
Two sailors were found to tie the ropes around their waists and stand guard below while they slowly and cautiously climbed from one swaying rung to another.
"All right?" asked Bobby, looking down over her shoulder.
"Right as rain," called Percival, with suggestion of eagerness in his voice.
He followed her cautiously as she scrambled like a squirrel from the top of the ladder to the crow"s-nest. Swinging through the clear sky one hundred feet above the water below, they found themselves in the sudden intimacy of a vast and magnificent solitude. The sapphire sky met the sapphire sea in a sharply defined, unbroken line around them, while shimmers of palpitating light rose from the sparkling waters until they lost themselves in the zenith above.
"Oh, look! look!" cried Bobby, with an eager hand on Percival"s arm.
Turning, he saw the water suddenly disturbed by hundreds of curved bodies that glistened in the sunlight as they leaped together in a perfect riot of joy.
"Silly old fish, the porpoise," he said, "always making circles in the water like that"
But the ennui expressed in his words was not reflected in his face. Even silly old porpoises acquire an interest when one"s attention is called to them by a small and shapely hand that forgets in the enthusiasm of the moment to remove itself from one"s arm. It was only by sharply calling to mind the haughty faces of his mother and sisters that he refrained from indiscretion.
"You don"t mind?" he asked, drawing his cigar-case from his pocket.
"Deuced clever of you, I call it, to think of coming up here. How did you know that Black fellow wouldn"t come?"
"He"s too fat to climb," said Bobby. "He doesn"t even like to walk."
"Thought he was quite keen about it from the way he walked with us every evening. A decent chap would not intrude."