"Have you never considered what mental anguish must be the portion of a
man whose body is twisted as his is? I know. So I pity him profoundly,
even if he is a rogue. That's all I was born for--to pity and to bind up.
And I pity you, Mr. Cleigh, you who have walled your heart in granite."
"You're plain-spoken, young lady."
"Yes, certain sick minds need plain speaking."
"Then my mind is sick?"
"Yes."
"And only a little while gone it was romantic!"
"Two hundred million hands begging for bread, and you crossing the world
for a string of glass beads whose value is only sentimental!"
"I can't let that pass, Miss Norman. I have trusted lieutenants who attend
to my charities. I'm not a miser."
"You are, with the greatest thing in the world--human love."
"Shall a man give it where it is not wanted? But enough of this talk. I
have shown you Cunningham's pearls."
"Perhaps."
* * * * *
Night and wheeling stars. It was stuffy in the crew's quarters. Half
naked, the men lolled about, some in their bunks, some on the floor. The
orders were that none should sleep on deck during the voyage to the
Catwick.
"All because the old man brings a skirt on board, we have to sweat blood
in the forepeak!" growled Flint. "We've got a right to a little sport."
"Sure we have!"
The speaker was sitting on the edge of his bunk. He was a fine specimen
of young manhood, with a pleasant, rollicking Irish countenance. He looked
as if he had been brought up clean and had carried his cleanliness into
the world. The blue anchor and love birds on his formidable forearms
proclaimed him a deep-sea man. It was he who had given Dennison the shirt
and the ducks.
"Sure, we have a right to a little sport! But why call in the undertaker
to help us out? You poor fish, all the way from San Francisco you've been
grousing because shore leaves weren't long enough for you to get prime
soused in. What's two months in our young lives?"
"I've always been free to do as I liked."
"You look it! I'll say so! The chief laid down the rules of this game, and
we all took oath to follow those rules. The trouble with you is, you've
been reading dime novels. Where do you think you are--raiding the Spanish
Main? There's every chance of our coming out top hole, as those
lime-juicers say, with oodles of dough and a whole skin."