It was not easy to bear when it came, although he had guessed the truth
already. But he choked back the wrath and despair which surged up in
him, and said with his stately courtesy: "I do wish you well, Elsie. No man can hope more earnestly than I that
you have made the better choice."
Then he turned, with a certain abruptness which reminded her of the
change in his manner she had noticed once or twice during recent days,
and quitted the bridge. She sighed, and was sorry for him, knowing
that he loved her.
Courtenay, who had been far too busy to pay heed to anything beyond the
brief fight between the boats and the canoes, perceived now that the
gangway was in position; lights were shining on both the upper and
lower platforms.
He stretched out his hand, and drew Elsie to him.
"Are you alone, sweetheart?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Kiss me, then, and go to meet your friends. They will be aboard in
less than a minute. Oh, Elsie, I thought I had seen the last of you."
"Was it so bad as that?" she murmured, a great content soothing her
heart and brain at her lover's admission that he was thinking of her
during the worst agony of the fray. He gave her a reassuring hug.
"You will never know how bad it was," he said. "I cannot understand
how we escaped. One moment it all looks like blind chance; the next I
feel like going on my knees in thankfulness for the direct intervention
of Providence. Those brutes ought to have mastered us a dozen times.
I almost lost faith when I heard Tollemache shout that the saloon was
in danger, but I could not leave the after deck, where four of us were
keeping fifty in check. The least sign of yielding would have caused
an overwhelming rush. Well, all's well that ends well. And not a
sailor living can squeeze his best girl and do his work at the same
time. Off with you, or I shall never bring you on a voyage in my ship
again."
With her soul singing a canticle of joy she passed from the bridge to
the lower deck. Mr. Boyle was waiting there, holding a lantern.
"Huh!" he growled, when he saw her, "p'raps you'll believe what I tell
you before your hair turns gray, if not sooner. Luck! Did any man
ever have such luck as the skipper? Why, if he fell off Mong Blong
he'd find a circus net rigged up to catch him."
"I agree with you so fully, Mr. Boyle," she whispered, "that I am going
to marry him."
"I guessed as much," he answered. "At any rate I fancied it wouldn't
be for want of axing on his part." He whirled off into a tempest of
wrath because a sailor beneath had failed to keep a guide-rope taut.
The occupants of the boats might have saved his life, but he would let
them know that he was still chief officer for all that.