"The storm!" said Cardo, starting; "are we going to have one?"
The captain looked critically in the direction towards which they were
sailing.
"Dirty weather coming, I think."
"Yes, I see," said Cardo; "I had not noticed it before, though. How
inky black the sky is over there! And the sea as black, and that white
streak on the line of the horizon!"
"We shall have a bit of a toss," said the captain. "Couldn't expect to
get to Australia on a mill pond."
"Mill pond do you call the swells we have had the last few days?"
"Almost," replied the captain, leaving him unceremoniously, and
shouting some orders to his crew.
Thus left, Cardo fell again into a deep reverie. Yes, it looked black
before them! "But I have always wished to see a storm at sea, and if I
only had Valmai with me, I should be joyous and exultant; but instead
of that, I am alone, and have a strange foreboding of some evil to
come. I can't be well, though I'm sure I don't know where I ail, for I
feel alright, and I eat like a horse."
"Come, Mr. Wynne," said one of the ladies, who had marked his serious
looks, "we must really call you to account! You have fallen into a
brown study again. You must let us cheer you up. We can't have the
very life of the party losing his spirits. Now if you had left your
wife at home, as Mr. Dawson has!"
"I have done that," said Cardo, "but I am not at all likely to fall
into low spirits. I have never in my life known what that means; but a
man, more especially a married man, must have his moments of serious
thought sometimes."
"Yes, of course," said the lady, with a considerable diminution of
interest in "the handsome Mr. Wynne!" "You have left your little ones
too, I suppose?"
"No," said Cardo, laughing, "I have none."
"Ah, indeed, that's a pity!" and she took the first opportunity of
joining her friend, and telling her of her discovery.
Cardo continued to look out to sea. No, bad enough to leave Valmai,
but "little ones"? Would that time ever come? and as he pondered, a
fresh idea seemed to strike him. It was evidently a painful one, it
stung him like the lash of a whip, and clenching his hands, and
muttering something between his teeth, he roused himself hastily, and
joined a party of young people, who were amusing themselves with the
pranks of a little boy, who, delighted with the notice taken of him,
strutted about and gave his orders, in imitation of the captain.
"Oh, here's Mr. Wynne," said the little urchin, and in a moment he was
lifted on to Cardo's shoulder, whooping with delight, and for the next
hour, the laugh was loudest and the fun most furious where Cardo and
his little friend were located. Before long, however, the storm was
upon them. Masts creaked and cordage rattled; the sails had been
lowered, and everything made safe, and Captain Owen, standing on the
bridge, looked energetic, and "fit" to fight with the storm-fiend. The
ladies soon retired, and many of the gentlemen followed them below,
some of the younger and hardier remaining on deck. Amongst them was
Cardo, who watched the fury of the elements as the wind tore down upon
them. Once, as the captain passed him, he asked, "Is there any
danger?" "I see none," was the laconic reply. It satisfied Cardo, and
he gave himself up to watch the grandeur of the storm. It was natural
that the thought of Valmai should enter his mind, and that he should
long for her presence; but it was not natural that he, a young and
healthy man, in the first flush of his manhood, should feel this
strange depression, this dark cloud hanging over him, whenever he
thought of his young wife. It was unlike Cardo. If his life had been
devoid of any special interest or excitement, it had at least been free
from care. Not even his lonely childhood, or his dull, old home had
dimmed the brightness and elasticity of his spirits. He had never had
a cobweb in his brain, and this haunting shadow which followed every
sweet memory of his wife was beginning to rouse his resentment, and
while the storm raged around him, and the ship ploughed her way through
the seething waters, Cardo Wynne, set himself with manful determination
to face the "black dog" which had haunted him lately; and somewhat in
this groove ran his thoughts.