"I'm not persuaded that I've done so badly in the ambitious way up to
now. This should be a fair change."
Then they stopped and watched the shadowy vessels stealing away into the
luminous gloom. I hope they loved the sight; the thought of it makes all
Beethoven sing over my nerves. The water was lightly crisped, and every
large sigh of the low wind seemed to blow a sheet of diamonds over the
quivering path of the moon; the light clouds were fleeting, fleeting;
the shadows were fleeting, fleeting; and, ah me! the hours of youth were
fleeting, fleeting to the gulf. The girls never spoke; but Ferrier
thought of one of them that her fateful silence was more full of
eloquence than any spoken words could be. She seemed to draw solemn
music from every nerve of big body. Oh, droll John Blair! Did those
placid, good blue eyes see anything? The deep contralto note of Marion
Dearsley's voice broke the entranced silence.
"It seems a waste of one's chances to leave this, but we must go. Lena
and I must trouble you to help us, though I'm sure I don't know why. I
shall never forget that sight."
"Nor I," thought Ferrier; but he was not an accomplished lady's man, so
he did not speak his thought.
Then Lewis and Mr. Blair fell into one of their desultory conversations,
with Tom as explanatory chorus, and Fullerton brooding alongside in
profound reverie. The breeze was enough to send the schooner past the
trawlers, but her foresail had been put against her so that she kept
line. An hour before the trawls were hauled Ferrier suggested that the
yacht should be allowed to sail, just to see if a case could be picked
up. Said the enthusiast Tom--
"I'll go with you. I can step into the boat now, but when you have
sixteen stone to drop on the top of a tholepin, I assure you it makes
you cautious. In my wild days I should have used terms, sir--oh,
distressing! oh, harrowing! To-night I'm ready for a thingumbob on 'the
blue, the fresh, the ever free.' Ah! entrancing! Oh-h-h! bewitching!"
Freeman sailed his craft and threaded the lines of the dragging trawlers
with stealthy speed. A hail came at last.
"Yacht ahoy! Have you still got the doctor aboard?"
The weird answer rang amid the shrill treble of the gaffs.
"Then come aboard of us if you can. It's bad."
Two men were down in the boat in a moment, and the yacht edged her way
toward the smack. When Lewis and Tom went down below, the burly
comedian's true character soon became apparent. A handsome young fellow
was twisting and gasping on the floor in pain cruel to see.
"He've eat somethin's disagreed with him, sir. We've tried Gregory,
what my mate had, and we give him some pills what I had, would a'most
done for me. 'Tisn't a morsel o' good."
Tom Lennard picked the poor fellow off the floor--so gently, so very
gently; he eased him up and put the man's head against his breast. A
slight swing of the vessel followed, and the lad shrieked and gasped.
Instantly Ferrier saw what had happened.
"Help me to take his clothes off, Lennard."
They stripped the patient to the skin; then Ferrier glanced once,
touched just lightly enough to make the young man draw breath with a
whistling sound, then the deft, steady fingers ran carefully down, and
Lewis said--
"Tom, keep him as easy as you can till I come back from the yacht.
Skipper, you didn't think to strip him."
"No, sir; why?"
"Well, he has three ribs broken, that is all."
"Eh! he said he had a tumble agin the anchor in the breeze."
"Yes, and I cannot tell how his lung has escaped."
When Lewis returned he strapped the sufferer up like an artist, and then
said--
"Now, skipper, you must run home as soon as the trawl is up."
"Home! An' lose my woyage maybe?"
"Can't help that. You have no place for him here. See, he's off to
sleep now his pain's gone, but where will he be if the sea rises?"