EJECTED FROM THE CABIN
Masters remained buried in thought for a few moments. The sudden opening
of his eyes and the refreshing news were almost overpowering him.
Presently he looked up at his companion, who was watching him closely;
said:
"You can't think, Dick, my dear boy, what a big fool I have been making
of myself."
"No--I can't. If it was any foolishness bigger than your present size,
it must have been simply colossal!"
"You told your sister of me in your letter. Did you mention me as Prince
Charlie?"
"Of course!"
"She'll know! She'll guess! I am glad. Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!"
He seized and wrung the hand of the amazed Dick, utterly ignoring his
feelings. Only felt that he must do something to relieve his own. He
retained just sufficient self-control to keep himself from indulging in
a wild dance of jubilation.
Dick, affecting to nurse crushed fingers, made an effort to get to the
bottom of things. Usually he accepted circumstances without inquiry as
to their source; but suspicion was roused in him now. It was suspicion
of a kind that he wanted to make into certainty; he said:
"A few minutes ago you expressed regret that I had mentioned you at all
in the letter."
"I know! But a few minutes ago things were all gloomy and black and
ugly! Now they are all bright, rose-coloured and lovely. The sun has
risen! The pulse of day is beginning to beat!"
"I say, old chap--how much a thousand words do you get for that kind of
thing? You roll it off as naturally as water rolls off a duck's back."
"When do we reach London, Dick?"
"Reach London? Are you mad? Why, we haven't turned round on our homeward
journey yet!"
"There's some sort of overland route, isn't there? We can get back
quicker?"
"Quicker? You are mad! It was only this very morning that you were
expressing regret that the time of the trip wasn't going to be double
the length!"
"This morning was then! Now is now! Oh, Dick, you stony-hearted, wicked
villain you!" He sprang laughingly over to the boy as he spoke. "Why
didn't you say before----"
"Keep off!"
Dick, dodging, picked up the first thing his hands rested on and assumed
a burlesque attitude of threat as he continued:
"Assault me again with one of your hundred-ton affectionate squeezes,
and I'll blow your brains out with this telescope. Throw up your hands!"
"I surrender!"
Masters laughingly fell in with the other's burlesque melodramatic
humour; continued:
"I am a bear, but a tamed one. I haven't a squeeze left in me!"
"Perhaps your Royal Highness is saving them up," suggested Dick, his
eyes twinkling as he spoke. "I begin to have a grave suspicion--garnered
from some of your rambling ravings--that you have designs on my sister!"
"I have, Dick, I have!"
"Open confession is good for the soul! But you don't fool me. I should
be false to every sense of brotherly duty if I failed to warn her
against your embraces. I shall bear the marks of one of them--on my
shoulder--to the grave."
"Dear old Dick!" Masters started forward impulsively: "I am ever so
sorry that----"
"Keep off! Keep off! If you don't I'll scream for help!"
Masters' thoughts went off at a tangent. Love is a leveller. Even
authors, under the influence of that other circumstance to which all
flesh is heir, are not superior to a passion for the conjunction of
octavo sheets and pens. It found expression in Masters' exclamation:
"The letters!"
Dick, inexperienced in such matters, failed to understand. His denseness
was irritating. He was aware of that, but only with intent to provoke,
ejaculated:
"Eh?"
"The letters! Don't you understand? We haven't touched port yet--not
near it."
"Four hours off yet."
"Then I shall have time to write to your sister myself."
"What--in four hours? Bold adventurer! If at first you don't succeed,
try, try, try, again. Your bravery unmans me! Excuse these tears!"
"Clear out of this cabin, Dick, and leave me to myself. I want to
write."
"What! For four hours? I'll be hanged if you do! Four hours of letter
from a man in your condition would prove deadly to the woman receiving
it. I won't be party to such inhumanity."
"Will you go out?"
"No, I won't! I paid the ship people for half this cabin, and I'm going
to assert my rights.... Keep off, Prince Charlie. If you put a finger on
me I'll have you tried by court-martial, and sentenced to walk the
plank!"
"Will you leave peaceably then?"
"No, I won't; keep off!"
Dick was thoroughly enjoying the situation now; his face was one huge
beaming grin as he continued:
"Besides, I am going to write a letter myself. To my sister, warning her
against the introduction of a lunatic into the family. She has been good
to me, and I shall take this opportunity of making some return for it."
"You wrote your letter to her this morning on deck with the stub of a
pencil. Go and write the other the same way."
"Shan't! Can't: want ink. Couldn't describe your vile character in
pencil; such labour necessitates ink: black ink."
"Out you go!"
"Keep off!... If you evict me from my cabin--I believe you are a woild
Oirish landlord in disguise, you spalpeen--I'll sue you for damages, and
have you hanged at the yard arm."
"Out you go!"
That time the boy's dodging ended in failure; his laughter rather
handicapped him. The other, laughing triumphantly, caught, struggled
with and pushed him out of the cabin. Clapping the door to, bolted it.
Then Masters sought again his berth, intending to indulge in a little
castle-building: aerial kind. Dick's tattooing on the door-panels with
his fists eliciting no reply, he bent and shouted through the keyhole:
"You bushranging brigand! You buccaneering bandit! You blood-thirsty old
skull-and-cross-bones, you! I've just remembered that this is piracy!
Piracy on the high seas! I'm going straight to the Captain to get the
handcuffs polished up. I'll make it my business to see you go back to
England in irons. Put that in your pipe and smoke it."
With that he retired--to the accompaniment of a shrilly whistled Rule
Britannia and a tramp as of soldiers. Masters was left the opportunity
of writing his love-letter.
He came out of the land of dreams. Sat down at the table, and drew paper
and pen towards him, implements of his trade. Spent time in looking at
the paper, pen in hand, but no words were formed.
It seemed strange that a man who for many years had gained a living by
dexterous juggling with words should be unable to shape them now. But
they would not come, to his satisfaction.
"What can I say on paper," he thought, "which will exhibit my awakened
conscience? Will be sufficiently contrite and penitent to appeal to her?
Nothing! Half the meaning of a letter lies in the reading of it. She
would be justified, fully justified, from her present point of view, if
she were to throw it into the fire without reading it at all."
A look of gloom settled on his countenance; he asked himself:
"What right have I to write to her at all?--after the way in which I
insulted her? To apologise on paper is the act of a coward. I must go to
her, and hear her contempt of me. I deserve it."
He did not write his letter after all.