"Suppose we get on with the packing of that air-pump, Rasp. You had
better get in a couple of the men."
"All right," grumbled the old fellow; "I wasn't going to leave it
undone; but if I was a married man with a 'ansum wife, 'ang me if I
should care about having a smooth-tongued, dark-eyed, scented foreign
monkey of a chap like that at my house."
"You insolent old scoundrel!" cried Dutch, flashing into a rage; and he
caught the old fellow by the throat, but loosened him again with an
impatient "Pish!"
Rasp seized the poker and sent the red-hot cinders flying as he stoked
away at the fire.
"I desire that you never speak to me again like that. How dare you!"
"Oh, all right, Mr Pug, I won't speak again," said Rasp. "I didn't
mean no offence. I only said what I thought, and that was as I didn't
like to see that furren chap always a-hanging after going back to your
house, when he ought to be here, helping to see to the things getting
ready."
"Rasp!" said Dutch angrily.
"Well, so he ought to, instead of being away. Nobody wants him to take
off his yaller kid gloves and work, but he might look on. He's going to
be a niste one, he is, when he gets out in the place where we're
a-going. He'll have a hammock slung and a hawning over it when he gets
out in the hot sunshine, that's about what he'll do, and lie on his back
and smoke cigarettes while one works. Say, Mr Pug, I wish you was
going with us!"
He went and had another stoke at the fire, and glanced at Dutch's back,
for he was writing, and made no response. "Sulky, and won't speak,"
muttered Rasp; and, going out, banged the door after him.
"The fancies of a vulgar mind," said Dutch to himself, as soon as he was
alone. "The coarse belief of one who cannot understand the purity of
feeling and thought of a true woman; and I actually let such ideas have
a place in my breast. Bah! It's disgraceful!"
He glanced round the office, and then angrily devoted himself once more
to his work, for it seemed as if the great goggle-eyed diving-helmets
were once more bending forward and laughing at him derisively.
"I will not have this office made so hot," he muttered impatiently; and
he worked on for some time, but only to fall dreaming again, as he said,
"A little more than a fortnight and we shall be ready. Good luck to the
expedition. I wish it were gone."
Then, in spite of himself, he began thinking about the conduct of Laure
at his house, and wishing earnestly that he had never agreed to his
reception as a guest.
"But, there, he is a perfect gentleman," he argued; "and his conduct to
me is almost too effusive. Little Hester must find him all that could
be desired, or she would complain. Hallo, who is this?"
"Company to see you," said Rasp, roughly; and, as Dutch left his stool,
it was to meet Captain Studwick's invalid son and his sister, who came
in, accompanied by a quiet, gentlemanly-looking young man, whom he
introduced as Mr Meldon.
"The medical gentleman who attends me now," said John Studwick, smiling;
"not that I want much, do I, Mr Meldon?"
"Well, no, we will not call you an invalid, Mr Studwick," said the
stranger.
"Fact is," said John Studwick, "I've set up a medical man of my own.
Mr Meldon is going with us on the voyage."
"What voyage?" said Dutch, eagerly.
"Oh, you don't know, of course," said John Studwick, laughing. "My
father thinks a sea voyage will set me right, and I am going in the _Sea
King_. Bessy's going too."
"Indeed," said Dutch, looking from one to the other, while Bessy
coloured slightly, and turned away.
"Yes, it's just settled this morning. Mr Parkley is willing, so we
shall have a sea voyage and adventure too. I say, Mr Pugh, you asked
me to come to your house."
"Yes, and I shall be very glad," said Dutch, smiling.
"Well, can we fix a day when we may be introduced to this Spanish Cuban
gentleman? I'm curious to know my fellow-passenger. Sick man's fancy."
"Thursday week, then," said Dutch, eagerly. "Mr Meldon, perhaps, will
join us."
"I shall be very happy," replied that individual.
And he glanced at Bessy, who coloured again slightly; and then, after a
few words about the voyage, in which John Studwick expressed his regret
that Dutch was not going on the expedition, the little party went away.
"If I'm not mistaken," said Dutch to himself, as he climbed to his
stool, "there's somebody there to heal the sore place in poor Bessy's
heart. Poor girl! If I was not coxcombical to say so, I should think
she really was fond of me. There, come forth, little loadstone," he
said, with a look of intense love lighting up his countenance, and
raising the lid of his desk he took from a drawer a photographic carte
of his wife, and set it before him, to gaze at it fondly.
"I don't think I could have cared for Bessy Studwick, darling, even if
there had been no Hester in the world."
As he gazed tenderly at the little miniature of his wife's features,
there seemed to come a peculiar look in the eyes--the expression on the
face became one of pain.
He knew it was fancy, but he gazed on at the picture till his
imagination took a wider leap, and as if it were quite real, so real
that in his disturbed state he could not have declared it untrue, he saw
Hester seated in their own room, with every object around clearly
defined, her head bent forward, and the Cuban kneeling at her feet, and
pressing her hands to his lips.
So real was the scene that he started away from the desk with a loud
cry, oversetting his stool, and letting the heavy desk lid fall with a
crash.
In a moment Rasp ran into the office, armed with a heavy diver's axe,
and then stood staring in amazement.
"Is any one gone mad?" he growled.
"It was nothing, Rasp," said Dutch, wiping the perspiration from his
forehead.
"I never heard nothing make such a row as that afore," growled Rasp.
And then, putting the axe down, he made for the poker, had a good stoke
at the fire, and went out muttering.
Dutch opened the desk on the instant, but the scene was gone, and
hastily closing the lid again he began to pace the room.
For a moment his intention was to rush off home, but he restrained
himself for the time, and tried to recall the past; but his brain was in
a whirl. At last he grew more calm, and took out his watch.
"Only five o'clock," and he had said that he should get some dinner
where he was, stop late at work, and not be home till after nine.
He was to stay there and work for another three or four hours--to make
calculations that required all his thought, when he had seen or conjured
up that dreadful sight. No: he could not bear it. His nerves tingled,
his brain was throbbing, and incipient madness seemed to threaten his
reason as he prepared to obey the influence that urged him to go home.
"The villain!" he groaned. "It must be a warning. Heaven help me, I
will know the worst."