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.