Page:Lippincotts Monthly Magazine-39.djvu/980

956 "And you do not care, even if it is true?"

He stooped over her and gently raised her, and then, for the first time since he had known her, he gravely kissed her forehead. She snatched his hand and covered it with kisses and a flood of tears.

"There, there, my child! you are better now. Believe me if I tell you that perhaps I know more of this woman than you think. We will not care for her any more. The moment we reach New York I will set men at work on the marine records of every port in the world, and we will find the name of that ship if it takes from now to—to doomsday, whenever that legal holiday may be."

Her reply was to draw him down to her and to kiss him on the cheek and to say,—

"I—I thank you,—more than I can ever tell. Let me fix my hair, and I'll go with you. I'm not afraid of that woman now,—not if you are near me."

A friendly sailor, with an eye to a shilling, sprinkled some sea-water over young Mr. Royal Yardstickie, and the young man struggled back to an humiliating consciousness that he had fainted with superstitious fear, or from the prick of a guilty heart, or from both. As soon as he had recovered sufficiently to walk, he moved away from the bows, as if to go aft to the saloon. As he reached the first-deck engine he saw the people pouring out of the saloons and going to the ship's side, as if to see something on the water. He saw an officer clear the people away from the railing, while a sailor threw over a rope ladder. The officers on the bridge seemed to be expecting something, and as the crowd cut off his view he mounted the base of the little engine, where he could see all that passed on the deck and on the bridge. To his surprise, he found the ship had stopped, and there was a good deal of suppressed excitement among the throng of passengers.

Then, to his amazement, over the side of the ship from the rope ladder came Skipper Johnson of Mr. Manning's yacht. Young Mr. Yardstickie prided himself on his nerves. He had nerves once. They seemed to be quite gone now, for he trembled so much he could not stand on the edge of the engine, and was forced to step down on the deck and hide behind a crowd of sailors and firemen. Presently over the heads of those before him he saw the young skipper mount the steps to the bridge, where both pilot and captain seemed to welcome him heartily.

Mai and the judge experienced some difficulty in finding their way to the deck. They had stopped at Mrs. Gearing's room, and found her, poor lady, quite hysterical, and only Mai's calm confidence that no harm had come to the ship allayed her fears. She would not go on deck. "If it is safe," she said, "I'd rather stay here; and if we are all going to the bottom I'd rather keep in my room and be drowned in comfort than be pushed overboard by some frantic servant." The stairways were all crowded with people struggling to get on deck, some white, scared, and silent, others talking feverishly with all about them, both friends and strangers, others laughing hysterically, and all urged by the one motive of personal safety. By dint of a little patience, the judge found a place for Mai and himself behind the stern of a deck-