"No; he doesn"t expect to see you again. He was coming down to make sure that we got off safely."
"Fitz, dear Fitz, I must see him!"
"Miss Polly," he said miserably, "I"ll do anything I can."
"Oh, poor Fitz!" she cried pityingly, her eyes filling with tears. "I wish for your sake it wasn"t so. And you have been so splendid about it!"
"I"ve tried to make amends, and play fair. It hasn"t been easy. Shall I go back and look for him? It"s a small town, and I can find him."
"Yes. I"ll write a note. No; I won"t. Never mind. I"ll manage it. Fitz, go and rest. You"re worn out," she said gently.
Back into her stateroom went Miss Polly. From that time forth no man saw her nor woman, either, except perhaps her maid, and maids are dark and discreet persons on occasion. If this particular one kept her own counsel when she saw a trim but tremulous figure drop lightly over the starboard rail of the Polly far forward, pick up a small traveling-bag from the pier, step behind the opportune screen of a load of coffee on a flat car, and reappear to view only as a momentary swish of skirt far away at the sh.o.r.e end; if this same maid told Mr. Thatcher Brewster, half an hour later, that Miss Polly was asleep in her stateroom, and begged that she be disturbed on no account, as she was utterly worn out, who shall blame her for her silence on the one occasion or her speech on the other? She was but obeying, albeit with tearful misgivings, duly const.i.tuted authority.
Eight o"clock struck on the bell of the little Protestant mission church on the tiny plaza; struck and was welcomed by the echoes, and pa.s.sed along to eventual silence. Within two minutes after, there was a special stir and movement on the pier, a corresponding stir and movement on board the trim craft, a swishing of great ropes, and a tooting of whistles. White foam churned astern of her. A comic-supplement-looking pelican on a buoy off to port flapped her a fantastic farewell. The blockade-defying yacht Polly was off for blue waters and the freedom of the seas.
On the sh.o.r.e, feeling woefully helpless and alone, she who had been the jewel and joy of the Polly bit her lips and closed her eyes, in a tremulous struggle against the dismal fear:--
"Suppose he doesn"t love me, after all!"
XIV
THE YELLOW FLAG
The departing whistle of the yacht Polly struck sharply to the heart of a desolate figure seated on a bench in the blazing, dusty, public square of Puerto del Norte, waiting out his first day of pain. A kiskadee bird, the only other creature foolish enough to risk the hot bleakness of the plaza at that hour, flitted into a dust-coated palm, inspected him, put a tentative query or two, decided that he was of no possible interest, and left the Unspeakable Perk to his own cogitations.
So deep in wretchedness were the cogitations that he did not hear the light, hesitant footstep. But he felt in every vein and fiber the appealing touch on his shoulder.
"Good G.o.d! What are YOU doing here?" he cried, leaping to his feet. There was no awkwardness or shyness in his speech now; only wonder-stricken joy.
"I came back to see you."
"But the yacht! Your ship!"
"She has left."
"No! She mustn"t! Not without you! You can"t stay here. It"s too dangerous."
"I must. They think I"m aboard. I left a note for papa. He won"t get it until they"re at sea. And they can"t come back for me, can they?"
"No--yes--they must! I must see Stark and Wisner at once."
"To send me away?"
"Yes."
"Without forgiving me?"
"Forgiving? There"s no question of that between you and me."
"There is. Fitzhugh told me everything--all about the poor dead woman."
"Ah, he shouldn"t have done that."
"He should!" She stamped a little willful foot. "What else could he do?"
"Why, yes," he agreed thoughtfully. "I suppose that"s so. After all, a man can"t bear the names that Carroll does and go wrong on the big inner things. He has met his test, and stood it. For he cares very deeply for you."
"Poor Fitz!" she sighed.
"But here we"re wasting time!" he cried in a panic. "Where can I leave you?"
"Do you want to leave me?"
"Want to!" he groaned. "Can"t you understand that I"ve got to get you to the yacht!"
"Oh, beetle man, beetle man, don"t you WANT me?" she cried dolorously.
"Didn"t you mean your note?"
"Mean it? I meant it as I"ve never meant anything in the world. But you--what do you mean? Do you mean that you"ll--you"ll let the yacht go without you--and--and--and stay here, and m-m-marry me?"
"If you should ask me," she said, half-laughing, half-crying, "what else could I do? I"m alone and deserted. And there"s only you in the world."
"Miss P-P-Polly," he began, "I--I can"t believe--"
"It"s true!" she cried, and held out two yearning hands to him. "And if you stammer and stutter and--and--and act like the Unspeakable Perk NOW, I"ll--I"ll howl!"
If she had any such project, the chance was lost on the instant of the warning, as he caught her to him and held her close.
"Oh!" she cried, trying to push him away. "Do you know, sir, that this is a public square?"
"Well, I didn"t choose it," he reminded her, laughing in pure joy, with a boyish note new to her ear. "Anyway, there are only us two under the sun." And he drew her close again, whispering in her ear.
"Oh--oh, is that the language of medical science?" she reproved.
At this point, generic curiosity overcame the feathered eavesdropper in the tree above.
"Qu"est-ce qu"il dit?"--"What"s he say?"
The girl turned a flushed and adorable face upward.
"I won"t tell you. It"s for me alone," she declared joyously. "But you"ll never stop saying it, will you, dear?"
"Never, as long as we both shall live. And that reminds me," he said soberly. "We must arrange about being married."