To reach the forward saloon they had to pass the boats near which

Courtenay had halted. The sailors saw them. During the first lull one

of the men said: "The señor captain is escorting one of the English señoritas from the

saloon."

"Where is he taking her to?" asked another.

"Who knows?"

"It will be all the same wherever she is. If the ship goes, we go."

"Who can tell? These English are stupid. They always try to save

women first. Once, when I was on the--"

A few words in Spanish reached them from Mr. Boyle, and they went on

with their work. But such muttered confidences are eloquent of

mischief when the pinch comes.

At the forward end of the promenade deck, just beneath the bridge,

Elsie received another reminder of the force of the wind, which was

rendered almost intolerable by the lashing of the spray.

"I--can't--go on," she gasped. Courtenay felt, rather than heard, that

she was speaking to him. Without further ado, he picked her up in his

arms, and deposited her, all flushed and breathless, in the shelter of

the fore saloon hatch. If she were so anxious to see her friend the

doctor, he was determined she should not be disappointed.

"No time for explanations," he said, while she tremblingly clutched at

a rail which gave support down the companion-way. "Dr. Christobal is

below. But--I fear you will find a shocking scene. Perhaps you had

better let me take you back."

"No, no, not on my account. I think I am past feeling any sentiment.

I would far rather do something, be of some use, however slight."

A pungent smell of iodoform came to them up the hatchway. Joey, who

had followed bravely in their wake, and was now a few steps down the

stairs, crept back, awed.

"At least, let me ask Dr. Christobal if you may come. You will be

quite safe here if you grip the rail. Even if a sea breaks over the

hatch it cannot touch you. May I leave you? And do you mind holding

Joey?"

Elsie detected a return to his earlier manner, and she was grateful to

him for it. She did not like him so well when he was stern and curt.

"Yes," she said. "That is only reasonable; but please tell him I shall

not be in the way, I know that there are wounded men to be attended,

and dead men down there, too. I shall not scream or faint, believe me."

"I am sure of that. Not one woman in a thousand could have played and

sung to cheer others, as you did after the accident happened."

It might have been the reaction from her exciting passage along the

deck, but Elsie experienced a sudden warm glow in her face. Somehow,

it was delightful to hear those words from such a man in the hour of

his supremest trial. For she realized what it meant to him, even

though his life were saved, if the Kansas became a wreck.




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