Page:Frank Stockton--Adventures of Captain Horn.djvu/139

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN HORN For a moment the flush on the face of the young woman faded away, but it quickly returned. Apparently involuntarily, she rose to her feet. Turning to the captain, who also rose, she said:

"But there is another way in which the affair would have to be looked at. Suppose I should not become your widow? Suppose you should not be lost at sea, and should come back safely?"

The captain drew a deep breath, and folded his arms upon his chest. "Miss Markham," said he, "if this marriage should take place, it would be entirely different from other marriages. If I should not return, and it should be considered legal, it may make you all rich and happy. If it should not hold good, we can only think we have done our best. But as to anything beyond this, or to any question of my return, or any other question in connection with the matter, our minds should be shut and locked. This matter is a business proposition, and as such I lay it before you. If we adopt it, we do so for certain reasons, and beyond those reasons neither of us is qualified to go. We should keep our eyes fixed upon the main point, and think of nothing else."

"Something else must be looked at," said Edna. "It is just as likely that you will come back as that you will be lost at sea."

"This plan is based entirely on the latter supposition," replied the captain. "It has nothing to do with the other. If we consider it at all, we must consider it in that light."

"But we must consider it in the other light," she said. She was now quite pale, and her face had a certain sternness about it. 127