"I don't understand how you happened to be on that schooner--as--as you
were," she said, hesitating.
"I didn't rig myself out this way to play any practical jokes, Miss
Marston," he returned, bitterly.
"I would like to know how it all happened--your side of it."
"I have talked too much already."
There was no more conversation for a long time. He wondered how she had
mustered courage to talk at all. They were in a predicament to try the
courage of even a seasoned seaman. In the night, tossed by that wild
sea, drifting they knew not where, she had apparently disregarded
danger. He asked himself if she had not merely exhibited feminine
ignorance of what their situation meant. He had often seen cases where
apparent bravado was based on such ignorance.
"I must say that you told me at least one truth a while ago--you are not
a coward," he said at last.
She was comforting the wretched cat. "But I am miserably frightened,"
she admitted. "I don't dare to think about the thing. I don't dare
to look at the waves. I talked to you so as to take my mind off my
troubles. I didn't mean to be prying."
"I'll tell you what has been done to me," he blurted. "Hearing
somebody's troubles may take your mind off your own."
While the two men amidships bailed doggedly and weariedly, he told his
story as briefly as he could. The gray dawn showed her face to him after
a time, and he was peculiarly comforted by the sympathy he saw there. He
did not communicate to her any suspicions he may have entertained. With
sailor directness he related how he had hoped, and how all had been
snatched away from him. But on one topic the mouths of both seemed to be
sealed!
After a time Bradish and the cook were enabled to rest from the work of
bailing. The planks of the boat swelled and the leak was stopped.
"You'd better crawl aft here and sit beside Miss Marston," advised Mayo.
"Be careful how you move."
He passed Bradish and took the latter's place with the cook, and felt
a sense of relief; he had feared that the one, the dreaded topic would
force itself upon him.
"I don't see no sense in prolonging all this agony," averred his
despondent companion. "We ain't ever going to get out of this alive.
We're drifting in on the coast, and you know what that means."