“George, old man!” I shouted.
No answer. I opened the door and went in. The room was empty. What’s
more, the bunk hadn’t been slept in. I don’t know when I’ve been more
surprised. I went on deck.
“He isn’t there,” I said.
“Not there!” said old Marshall. “Where is he, then? Perhaps he’s gone
for a stroll ashore. But he’ll be back soon for breakfast. You’d better
wait for him. Have you breakfasted? No? Then will you join us?”
The man said he would, and just then the gong went and they trooped
down, leaving me alone on deck.
I sat smoking and thinking, and then smoking a bit more, when I thought
I heard somebody call my name in a sort of hoarse whisper. I looked
over my shoulder, and, by Jove, there at the top of the gangway in
evening dress, dusty to the eyebrows and without a hat, was dear old
George.
“Great Scot!” I cried.
“‘Sh!” he whispered. “Anyone about?”
“They’re all down at breakfast.”
He gave a sigh of relief, sank into my chair, and closed his eyes. I
regarded him with pity. The poor old boy looked a wreck.
“I say!” I said, touching him on the shoulder.
He leaped out of the chair with a smothered yell.
“Did you do that? What did you do it for? What’s the sense of it? How
do you suppose you can ever make yourself popular if you go about
touching people on the shoulder? My nerves are sticking a yard out of
my body this morning, Reggie!”
“Yes, old boy?”
“I did a murder last night.”
“What?”
“It’s the sort of thing that might happen to anybody. Directly Stella
Vanderley broke off our engagement I——”
“Broke off your engagement? How long were you engaged?”
“About two minutes. It may have been less. I hadn’t a stop-watch. I
proposed to her at ten last night in the saloon. She accepted me. I was
just going to kiss her when we heard someone coming. I went out. Coming
along the corridor was that infernal what’s-her-name—Mrs. Vanderley’s
maid—Pilbeam. Have you ever been accepted by the girl you love,
Reggie?”
“Never. I’ve been refused dozens——”
“Then you won’t understand how I felt. I was off my head with joy. I
hardly knew what I was doing. I just felt I had to kiss the nearest
thing handy. I couldn’t wait. It might have been the ship’s cat. It
wasn’t. It was Pilbeam.”
“You kissed her?”
“I kissed her. And just at that moment the door of the saloon opened
and out came Stella.”
“Great Scott!”
“Exactly what I said. It flashed across me that to Stella, dear girl,
not knowing the circumstances, the thing might seem a little odd. It
did. She broke off the engagement, and I got out the dinghy and rowed
off. I was mad. I didn’t care what became of me. I simply wanted to
forget. I went ashore. I—It’s just on the cards that I may have drowned
my sorrows a bit. Anyhow, I don’t remember a thing, except that I can
recollect having the deuce of a scrap with somebody in a dark street
and somebody falling, and myself falling, and myself legging it for all
I was worth. I woke up this morning in the Casino gardens. I’ve lost my
hat.”