"I am sure only that I know my own! Tell me, what was in that note I carried, addressed to yon varlet Davidson?"
"Sealed orders!"
"And how does that affect me, Helena. Tell me--I know you love me, and you know that all the rest is small, to that; but as to that wedding part of it, Helena--what do you say?"
She hesitated for an instant. "You want me to--come--to come with honor, as you do?"
"Yes. I'll take any risk that means with you."
"Will you take sealed orders, too?"
"Yes."
"Turn on the lights."
I reached the switch, and an instant later a dozen high candle-power bulbs flooded the suite with light. With a little cry of dismay Helena sprang away, and stood at my shaving-glass, arranging her hair. Now and then she turned her face just enough to smile at me a little, her eyes dark, languid, heavy lidded, a faint shadow of blue beneath. And now and then her breast heaved, as though it were a sea late troubled by a storm gone by.
"What will auntie say?" she sighed at last.
"What will you say?" I replied.
"Oh, brute, you shall not know! I must have some manner of revenge against a ruffian who has taken advantage of me while I was in his power!"
"Ah, heartless jade!"
"--So you shall wait until we are ashore. I will give you sealed orders----"
"When?"
"Now. And you shall open them at your friend's house--as soon as we are all settled and straightened after leaving the boat--as soon as----"
"It looks as though it were as soon as you please, not when I please."
"Harry, it is my revenge for the indignities you have heaped on me. Do you think a girl will submit to that meekly--to be browbeaten, abused, endangered as I have been! No, sir--sealed orders or none. I have only owned I loved you. So many girls have been mistaken about things when--when the moon, or a desert island or--or something has bewitched them. But I haven't said I would marry you, have I, ever?"
"No. I don't care about that so much as the other; but I care a very, very great deal about it, too. You, too, are cruel. You are a heartless jade."
"And you have been a cruel and ruthless pirate."
"Tell me now!"
"No." And she evaded me, and gained the door. "I must go. Oh, it's all a ruin now--Auntie'll be furious. And what shall I say?"
"Give her sealed orders, and my love! And when do I get mine?"
"In five minutes."
She was gone.... And after some moments, rapt as I was at her late presence, which still seemed to fill the room like the fragrance, like the fragrance of her hair which still lingered in my senses, I looked about, sighing for that she was gone. Then I noted that our friend Partial had gone with her. "Fie! Partial, after all, you loved her more!" I said to myself.
But in a few moments I heard a faint sound at my door. I opened. There stood Partial in the dusk, gravely wagging his tail, looking at me without moving his head. And I saw that he held daintily in his mouth a dainty note, addressed to me in the same handwriting as that on the note I had sent out from the heartless jade to yon varlet. And it was sealed, and marked with instructions for its opening.... "When You Two Varlets Meet." No more.
"Peterson," said I, advancing to the forward deck, where I found him smoking, "I've been getting up some correspondence, since we'll be ashore by to-morrow noon----"
"--I don't know as to that, Mr. Harry."
"Well, I know about it. So, tell Williams that, even if he has to work all night, we must be moving as soon as it's light enough to see. I've got a very important message----"
"By wireless, Mr. Harry?" chuckled the old man.
"Yes, by wireless," (and I looked at Partial, who wagged his tail and smiled). "So I must get into Manning Island the first possible moment to-morrow. And Peterson, as we've had so good a run this trip, with no accident or misfortune of any kind, I don't know but I may make it a month or two extra pay--double--for you and Williams, and even John.
And as to Willy, please don't fire him, Peterson, for his deserting the ship's cook the other night. In fact, I'm very glad, on the whole, he did. Give him double pay for doing it, Peterson!"
"Ain't this the wonderful age!" remarked Peterson to a star which was rising over the misty marsh. "Especial, now, that wireless!"
I only patted Partial on the head, and we smiled pleasantly and understandingly at each other. Of course, Peterson could not know what we knew.
CHAPTER XL
IN WHICH LAND SHOWS IN THE OFFING
Before the white sea mists had rolled away I was on deck, and had summoned a general conference of my crew.
"'Polyte," I demanded of our pilot, "how long before your partner will be at the lighthouse, below, there?"
"'Ow long?"
"Yes."
"Oh, maybe thees day sometam."
"And how long before he'll start back with the mail?"
"'Ow long?"
"Yes."
"Oh, maybe thees same day sometam."
"And how long will it take him to get back to some post-office with those letters?"
"'Ow long?"
"Yes."