THE CONFESSION
During the next three days the work of repairing the _Hawk's_ engines
went on unceasingly under McPhulach's supervision. The gunboat, which,
it was found, had already been repaired by the Germans, was floated, and
arrangements were made for accommodating the prisoners she would have to
carry. Calamity christened her _Satellite_, and the name was painted on
her stern in big white letters over the word _Gnesen_, which had
formerly been there.
On the afternoon of the day preceding Calamity's departure three of the
guns in the fort which had escaped damage from the fire were rendered
useless, while such stores, ammunition, and coal as could not be taken
away were destroyed or flung into the sea. This seeming waste was
necessary in order to prevent any stray vessel that might put in there
from re-coaling or victualling with what would otherwise have been left.
On the following morning, McPhulach, grimy of person and half-dead from
want of sleep, reported that the engines were in working order and that
he had a full head of steam in the boilers. A few hours afterwards
everything was ready for the departure; the prisoners had been divided
into two lots, one being sent aboard the _Satellite_, now under the
command of Mr. Dykes, and the other transferred to the _Hawk_, whose
after-hold had been fitted up for the purpose.
A blast from the _Hawk's_ syren gave the signal to weigh anchor; the
winches rattled, the cables came rumbling up through the hawse-pipes,
and the privateer slowly steamed towards the harbour mouth with the
_Satellite_ in her wake. As she passed the ruined fort with the Union
Jack fluttering above it, she fired an irregular salute of three guns,
while the _Satellite_, not to be outdone, dipped her flag.
Leaning over the _Hawk's_ stern rail, watching the hissing water being
churned into foam by the propeller, was Dora Fletcher. She was still
there when the trees which lined the shore had dissolved into a vague
green outline that presently took on a bluish tint, and finally became
merged in the hills beyond. When the hills themselves faded, became
blurred, and melted into the horizon leaving against the sky-line
nothing but a dark smudge resembling a low-lying cloud, the girl had not
moved from her post, but still continued to gaze with wistful eyes into
the distance. Long before the brief twilight cast a cooling shadow
across the flaming sky the last vestige of the island had faded out of
sight and nothing was to be seen save an unbroken vista of sea that
changed from green to grey, was for a few moments transformed into a
shimmering expanse of molten gold in the rays of the dying sun, then
slowly changed to purple, and so to a deep, unfathomable blue. Darker it
grew as the twilight deepened, and when night abruptly blotted out the
soft half-lights, the sea became a vast and trembling mirror, reflecting
in its depths a thousand twinkling points of light.
It was not by any means the first time that Dora Fletcher had seen sea
and sky swallow up the land, but for a reason she could not explain even
to herself, there seemed to be something unusually depressing in this
departure from the island. It was not that it had possessed any
particular charm for her; she had seen lands far more beautiful and
islands infinitely more picturesque--no, it was not this.
To add to her unaccountable depression came thoughts of her dead father
and the great, empty future which lay before her. Now that her father
had gone, she reflected, there was no one in all the world to whom she
mattered, or who would miss her were she never to return. A sensation of
utter loneliness descended upon her, and with it a strange foreboding,
none the less disquieting because it was so vague. She felt an urgent
desire for human companionship, and, looking round the deck, saw that it
was deserted. Smith was on the bridge, but she had no wish to speak to
him, even had it been possible. And Mr. Dykes, now aboard the
_Satellite_, would not have satisfied this hunger of her soul for
fellowship. Her thoughts turned to the Captain, and him she did not
dismiss from her mind, but lingered contemplatively upon this strange,
taciturn man; so vital, so dominating.
Illogically, she found herself wishing that this cruise might last for
ever; there was something soothing in the thought of her utter
dependence on this man's will. For a moment she lingered luxuriously
upon the thought of her life ordered and controlled by him, and gave
herself up to a delicious feeling of absence from care and
responsibility. Suddenly she experienced a revulsion of feeling, and
flushed vividly with a sensation of shame. Was it possible, she asked
herself angrily, that she was no stronger than some bread-and-butter
miss who had lived sheltered all her days? Was she so dismayed because
she must start life for herself, that she must needs wish for dependence
and protection; in short, a master?
The cool night-wind fanned her hot cheeks and she made an effort to
compose herself and reduce the chaos of her thoughts to some sort of
order. Unfortunately for her efforts in this direction the door of the
little deck-house above the companion-way opened, and turning, she saw
the Captain himself.
"Good evening," she said, but for some reason her voice was half-choked
and utterly unlike her own.
Something about her, perhaps the unconscious appeal of her graceful
figure or the unusual note in her voice, arrested him as he was about to
pass on.
"Good evening," he answered, a little less curtly than was his wont.
She hoped he would go on, but, as if recollecting something, he paused.
"I suppose you know we are bound for Singapore?" he said.
"Yes."
"Have you, by any chance, friends there?"
"No."
"I gathered from the papers you placed in my charge that your home is in
England."
"My home is not in England," she answered; "it is here," and she waved
her arm dramatically as if to indicate sea and space.
"At any rate, I presume you will go to England," he said, in nowise
affected by her poetic suggestion.
"If I must."
"I can't force you to go anywhere against your will," he answered in
the tone of one trying to keep patient. "If you take my advice, you will
consult the British Consul."
"You seem very anxious to get rid of me!" exclaimed the girl with sudden
bitterness. "Have I been such an encumbrance since I came on board?"
Calamity gazed at her flushed and angry face with surprise.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I mean this," she replied impulsively. "Ever since I have been on this
ship you've either ignored me or else treated me as if I were a nuisance
which had to be tolerated somehow. Yet I've done my share of the work,
haven't I?"
The question was flung out like a challenge, and some moments elapsed
before the Captain spoke. It was, perhaps, the first time he had ever
considered this girl as an entity, as anything but an unwelcome
passenger forced upon him by circumstances.
"What has all this to do with your destination?" he asked at last.
"Everything," she answered, in a voice that trembled with anger and
indignation. "You ask me where I want to be sent, as though I were
a--a----" her voice failed, and to the Captain's astonishment no less
than her own, she burst into a passion of tears.
"You had better come to my cabin," said Calamity, when she had regained
control of herself, and he led the way down the companion.
She felt abashed and humiliated now, and, metaphorically, kicked herself
for her foolishness. Yet even so, she realised that this sudden burst of
emotion had not been anger at his treatment of her, so much as despair
at the thought that she must soon pass out of his life as utterly as
though she had never been; that to him, henceforward, she would be
something less, even, than a memory.
On reaching the cabin, Calamity shut the door and swung a chair round
for her to sit upon.
"Now," he said, "just tell me what you want me to do. You say you have
no home, and you object, apparently, to being placed in charge of the
British Consul. What then?"
He spoke very quietly, almost gently, and because of this, perhaps, a
feeling of utter hopelessness came over the girl.
"You must do as you think best," she answered in a voice from which all
fire and spirit had gone.
"But just now you refused to let me do this."
"I know. I--I was foolish and unreasonable, I suppose."
Calamity remained silent for a minute or two, regarding her curiously.
He read her better than she guessed. When he spoke again she recognised
a new quality in his voice. It made her feel as if they two, though so
near, were yet miles apart. There was a note of pity in it which hurt
her more than anything she had ever known before because it demonstrated
so positively the distance between them.
"You and I, Miss Fletcher," he said slowly, "can never be friends; at
least, not in the sense I am thinking of, for our paths lie wide apart.
If my assumption is wrong--and you have sense and discrimination enough
to know what I mean by that--you must pardon me and put it down to lack
of insight on my part, not to any presumption or vanity. If it is not
wrong, you will understand without my saying more, why it is necessary
that you should leave this ship for good at Singapore."
The girl was looking at him with large, startled eyes. What, she
wondered, was that unnamable something about him which she had never
observed before? Why was it that, of a sudden, he seemed to have assumed
the guise of another class--a class about which she had read, but with
which she had never come into contact? The bold, fearless sea-captain,
the man of infinite resource, unscrupulous and even brutal, had
disappeared. In his place was a quiet, self-contained gentleman,
speaking in a low, kind voice; chiding her while he apologised for doing
it.
In some subtle way he had made her feel pitifully small and ignorant; he
awed her; but in a way she had never been awed before. It was impossible
to resent this, because she did not know how to do so; it was something
outside her experience. For the first time in her life she felt herself
up against that indefinable power which for centuries has made the
masses of the world subject to the few. It was something more than the
power to command, it was the power to be obeyed.
There was a long pause, and then the girl, too proud to deny her love
for him, spoke.
"You have not misunderstood me," she said, with a frankness that lent
dignity to her confession. "Without knowing it I have come to love you.
I think I would willingly and gladly have followed you to the uttermost
ends of the earth; I would have suffered with and for you. I believed
that I was meant for such as you; but you have made me see how foolish I
have been. Don't think that I am ashamed you should know this. I'm not."
She stopped, her eyes fixed on his defiantly as though daring him to
misunderstand her. In any other man but Calamity her words would have
produced a deep impression, but he, to all appearances, was perfectly
unmoved.
"We will forget all this," he said quietly. "The thing still to be
settled is this matter of what's to become of you when we reach
Singapore."