"Mr. Marston's orders are, Captain Mayo, that you turn here and go west.
Do you know the usual course of the Bee line steamers?"
"Yes, sir."
"He requests you to turn in toward shore and follow that course."
"Very well, sir." Captain Mayo walked to the wheel. "Nor' nor'west,
Billy, until I can give you the exact course."
"Nor' nor'west!" repeated the wheelsman, throwing her hard over, and
the Olenia came about with a rail-dipping swerve and retraced her way
along her own wake of white suds.
Miss Marston preceded the captain down the ladder and went into the
chart-room. "A kiss--quick!" she whispered.
He held her close to him for a long moment.
"You are a most obedient captain," she said.
When he released her and went at his task, she leaned upon his shoulder
and watched him as he straddled his parallels across the chart.
"We'll run to Razee Reef," he told her, eager to make her a partner in
all his little concerns. "The Bee boats fetch the whistler there so as
to lay off their next leg. I didn't know that Mr. Marston was interested
in the Bee line."
"I heard him talking about that line," she said, indifferently.
"Sometimes I listen when I have nothing else to do. He used a naughty
word about somebody connected with that company--and it's so seldom that
he allows himself to swear I listened to see what it was all about. I
don't know even now. I don't understand such things. But he said if he
couldn't buy 'em he'd bu'st 'em. Those were his words. Not very elegant
language. But it's all I remember."
Before he left the chart-room Mayo took a squint at the barometer. "I'm
sorry he has ordered me in toward the coast," he said. "The glass is too
far below thirty to suit me. I think it means fog."
"But it's so clear and beautiful," she protested.
"It's always especially beautiful at sea before something bad happens,"
he explained, smiling. "And there has been a big fog-bank off to
s'uth'ard for two days. It's a good deal like life, dear. All lovely,
and then the fog shuts in!"
"But I would be happy with you in the fog," she assured him.
He glowed at her words and answered with his eyes.
She would have followed him back upon the bridge, but the steward
intercepted her. He had waited outside the chart-room.