Page:Quartette - Kipling (1885).djvu/56

 One afternoon I had a bad headache; and as Robbie was listening entranced to one of his favourite "stowiz" told by Mab, who was old enough to look after him, I went down to enjoy the luxury of a quiet rest in my cabin. The port was wide open, and on the sill of it in a most dangerous position sat the little white figure with the golden hair.

"Oh, take care, dear," I cried quickly.

She started and lost her balance. The tiny hands clutched vainly at the air—then the port sill was empty, and I leant out only in time to see the blue waters closing over the golden head, and to hear a short stifled cry which was more like a sob than a shriek.

For a moment I gasped without being able to utter a sound. Then I screamed, in a voice that didn't seem like my own, and that scream brought the Stewardess to me in one minute, with a blanched, terrified face.

"The child! The child!" I cried. "Save her. She has just fallen out."

"You don't mean, Robbie, ma'am?"

"No!—No! A little girl! I saw her fall. Good God! How can you stand quietly there while the child is drowning? Call for help! Let me go to the Captain!"

But she stood in front of me and spoke very quietly to a Steward who was just outside in the saloon. "Nothing's the matter," she said; "the lady is a little bit excited and hysterical; that's all. lf anyone asks who screamed, you tell them that."

Carefully closing the cabin door she came back and tried to make me sit down. I could hardly speak for anger. "You fiend!" I exclaimed. "I tell you a child has fallen overboard and is dying—drowning! She must be dead by now, and it is your fault. They might have saved her if you had called at once! God forgive you for being so wicked!"

I burst into a passion of tears, but she only said: "Hush, don't cry! It's no real child—you've seen little May."

"What can you mean?" I asked.

"You've seen little May Rodney. She fell out of this very port six years ago, poor darling; and again and again I've heard people in this cabin say they have seen her."

"You are talking nonsense," I said. "Do you think I can