wondering whether she was on deck, where he intended to go. Some one was snoring in a stateroom off the cabin, and he fancied by its volume it was Lund.
It was a divided ship's company, after all. For he knew that Lund, handicapped with his blindness, would live perpetually suspicious of{39} Simms. And the doctor was against Lund. Rainey's own position was a paradox.
{39}
He started for the companionway, and a slight sound made him turn, to face the girl. She looked at him casually as Rainey, to his annoyance, flushed.
"Good afternoon," said Rainey. "Are you going on deck?"
It was not a clever opening, but she seemed to rob him of wit, to an extent. He had yet to know how she stood concerning his presence aboard. Did she countenance the forcible kidnapping of him as a possible tattler? Or—?
"My father tells me you have decided to go with us," she said, pleasantly enough, but none too cordially, Rainey thought.
"Doctor Carlsen helped me to my decision."
She did not seem to regard this as a thrust, but stood lightly swaying to the pitch of the vessel, regarding him with grave eyes of appraisal.
"You have not been well," she said. "I hope you are better. Have you eaten?"{40}
{40}
Rainey began to think that she was ignorant of the facts. And he made up his mind to ignore them. There was nothing to be gained by telling her things against her father—much less against her fiancée, the doctor.
"Thank you, I have," he said. "I was going to look up Mr. Lund."
The sentence covered a sudden change of mind. He no longer wanted to go on deck with the girl. They were not to be intimates. She was to marry Carlsen. He was an outsider. Carlsen had told him that. So she seemed to regard him, impersonally, without interest. It piqued him.
"Mr. Lund is in the first mate's cabin," said the girl, indicating a door. "Mr. Bergstrom, who was mate, died at sea last voyage. Doctor Carlsen acts as navigator with my father, but he has another room."
She passed him and went on deck. Carlsen was acting first mate as well as surgeon. That meant he had seamanship. Also that
Prev.
Back
Top