"I must say something--"
But he checked her savagely. "This is no place to talk over folly! It's
no place to talk anything! There's something else to do besides talk!"
"We are going to die, aren't we?" She leaned close to him, and the
question was hardly more than a whisper framed by her quivering lips.
"I think so," he answered, brutally.
"Then let me tell you--"
"You can tell me nothing! Keep still!" he shouted, and drew away from
her.
"Why doesn't Captain Downs come back after us?"
"Don't be a fool! The sea has taken them away."
They exchanged looks and were silent for a little while, and the
pride in both of them set up mutual barriers. It was an attitude which
conspired for relief on both sides. Because there was so much to say
there was nothing to say in that riot of the sea and of their emotions.
"I won't be a fool--not any more," she told him. There was so distinctly
a new note in her voice that he stared at her. "I am no coward," she
said. She seemed to have mastered herself suddenly and singularly.
Mayo's eyes expressed frank astonishment; he was telling himself again
that he did not understand women.
"I don't blame you for thinking that I am a fool, but I am not a
coward," she repeated.
"I'm sorry," stammered the young man. "I forgot myself."
"There is danger, isn't there?"
"I'm afraid the mast has pounded a bad hole in her. I must run forward.
I must see if something can't be done."
"I am going with you." She followed him when he started away.
"You must stay aft. You can't get forward along that deck. Look at the
waves breaking over her!"
"I am going with you," she insisted. "Perhaps there is something that
can be done. Perhaps I can help."
The girl was stubborn, and he knew there was no time for argument.
Three times on their way forward he was obliged to hold her in the hook
of his arm while he fought with the torrent that a wave launched upon
the deck.
There was no doubt regarding the desperate plight of the schooner. She
was noticeably down by the head, and black water was swashing forward
of the break of the main-deck. The door of the galley was open, and the
one-eyed cook was revealed sitting within beneath a swinging lantern. He
held a cat under his arm.