Of course, if she really cared for the fellow--
Then what Tobias Ba.s.sett had said about its being necessary for Lorna to marry a wealthy man flashed into Ralph"s mind. Degger certainly was not wealthy. Ralph had reason to know this to be a fact.
If the Nicholets were in financial straits and looked to Lorna to make a moneyed marriage, the girl had picked the wrong partner in her match-making.
Ralph did not feel any scorn for Lorna in this supposition. He only pitied her. Determined as she was not to marry Ralph, Endicott knew she must be forced by family pressure to accept the next best marriageable possibility. But he was sure Lorna was misinformed regarding Degger.
Of course, the latter believed the Nicholets to be wealthy. He was, Ralph was confident, nothing more nor less than a fortune hunter. That his old friend and this Degger were mutually mistaken in each other"s financial affairs was not a situation from which Ralph could extract any amus.e.m.e.nt. Not at all! He hated to see Lorna waste any of her thought-perhaps a measure of her confidence-upon such a character as Degger.
"She has gone through the wood and picked up a crooked stick, after all," Ralph reflected, while maneuvering the motor-boat. "I didn"t think she was such a little fool!"
There was some bitterness in this expression of his thought. Although he had no wish to marry Lorna (or so he almost hourly told himself) Ralph Endicott felt a certain proprietorship in the girl because of their years of intimacy. Had she been his sister he believed he would have felt the same.
When Degger learned that Lorna would have no dowry, he would leave her flat. He was not a fellow to really fall in love with any girl. He was too much in love with himself, was Conny Degger.
Ralph looked around again. The man was recovering, and Lorna had drawn away from him. She was saturated as well as Degger, and Ralph saw now that she shook with the cold.
"Come here, Lorna, and hold the wheel. Just as she is. There! I"ll get you something to put on."
Ralph drew out his keys and unlocked the cabin door. He found a heavy pilot-cloth coat and made the girl put it on.
"If Degger wants anything let him look around for it," Ralph said, not altogether graciously.
Lorna flashed him an inquiring glance from under her wet curls. Was it possible that he was showing jealousy of Conny Degger? In spite of their perilous position, she was amused by this suggestion.
That they were by no means out of danger was evident. The sea was running high, the wind still blew, and driving rain flattened the tops of the waves and beat upon the voyagers on the _Fenique_ most viciously.
The motor-boat was still running before the gale. Seaworthy as she was, Ralph did not dare put back for the harbor"s mouth. Lower Trillion was the nearest port they could hope to make in safety.
It was too stuffy and uncomfortable in the low cabin to attract the girl. Besides, one felt safer outside with the seas running as they were.
She looked at Conny Degger"s face again. Its expression declared so plainly his panic that she turned her gaze away quickly. Never again, Lorna told herself, would she be able to look at that young man without remembering his cowardice.
Ralph however did not understand this. He had mistaken the natural pity the girl showed Degger for a much more tender feeling.
Endicott had no suspicion that Lorna had been playing Degger all the time for the express purpose of making Ralph himself feel slighted. It wickedly delighted the girl to feel that she was making her old chum jealous.
This possibility Ralph would not have admitted in any case. Professor Henry Endicott and the other members of his family were constantly hinting at a contract between Ralph and Lorna. Of late more than a little had been said to him regarding the girl"s a.s.sociation with this Degger. Why did Ralph not put a stop to it, they inquired.
Although he denied to himself that he felt any jealousy, he had begun to believe that it was his duty to separate Conny and Lorna. He was not so lacking in humane instincts as to wish that Conny had lost his grip on the rope when he was overboard so that the difficulty would have been quite satisfactorily settled; and yet the thought flashed into his mind.
As Ralph conned the course of the plunging _Fenique_ he likewise conned the problem of how to get rid of Conway Degger without inspiring in Lorna"s breast a greater liking for the fellow than he believed she already sustained.
They raised the Lower Trillion life-saving station and drove on for the mouth of the harbor. A can buoy marked the channel and a deep-mouthed bell in a bracket on the end of the stone pier tolled intermittently.
Ralph skilfully steered into the calm pool behind this breakwater.
"Some traveling," he observed, when he had shut off the engine and looked at his watch. "Forty-five minutes from the light. The old tub never made better time, even in a flat calm."
"Are we safe at last?" gasped Degger, sitting up.
"Just as safe as though you were at home and in bed," rejoined Ralph rather bruskly.
"What shall I do?" Lorna asked. "I look a fright."
"Why, Miss Lorna," Conny said, quickly regaining his spirits, "you"ll have time enough to dry your things in the cabin. We"ll be here for hours, I suppose."
"_We_ may," Ralph said quickly. "But Lorna can go home by land. I"ll find somebody with a flivver to take her up to Clay Head."
"Oh!" exclaimed Degger. "Then I guess I"ll go with her."
"Guess again," Ralph rejoined. "I need you."
"What"s that?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the other.
"We"ll start back in the _Fenique_ just as soon as the wind hauls off a little. She"s fluttering now."
"Do you think for one moment that I would risk my life outside in this d.i.n.ky little craft again unless it is calm? I guess all these motor-boats are alike-as unsafe as they can be!"
"Oh, I"ll not start back for the light until all danger is over," Ralph told him quietly. "The clouds are breaking. In a couple of hours it may be all right. And we must pick up Tobias"s dory and tow it in."
"Of course!" Lorna said cheerfully. "I had forgotten that."
"Say!" exclaimed Degger loudly, "the skipper"s dory can drift to the Bahamas and back again, as far as I am concerned. I wouldn"t trust myself outside again to-day--"
"Then who will pay Tobias for his boat?" demanded Ralph sharply.
Lorna had been about to suggest this very point-although more diplomatically-when Ralph blurted out his question. The scorn expressed on his face and the fire in his eyes stirred her to some defense of Degger"s selfishness.
"Of course _I_ will pay Mr. Ba.s.sett," she said decisively. "It is my fault that we lost the dory. I asked Conny to take me out in it. I will pay Mr. Ba.s.sett if it is lost."
"It isn"t going to be lost if I can help it," growled Ralph. "You can"t sink one of those dories very easily. I believe I can find it, if we go back before night. Tobias is fond of that boat, too."
"Well, find it, if you are so set on doing so," snarled Degger. "I refuse to risk my life."
"You are a lot keener on saving your life than anybody else, I imagine,"
Ralph rejoined scornfully. "I shall need somebody to help when I catch the dory, and you"re elected."
"You can"t bully me, Endicott!" cried the other. "I don"t like your manner, anyway."
"That makes me sad," drawled Ralph. "I"m going to weep over that-when I find time. But we"ll have a try for Tobias"s dory first."
"I won"t go with you. You can"t make me. I will accompany Miss Lorna."
"We"ll see about that," was Ralph"s rejoinder. He turned to the girl.
"I"ll signal the station. Perhaps Zeke Ba.s.sett can get off, and he will take you up in his car. He can find a boat to take you ash.o.r.e. I don"t want to beach the _Fenique_."
"That"s all right, Endicott. You need not bother about Miss Lorna," put in Degger. "I"ll attend to her transportation to Twin Rocks."