"Why?" I asked.
He returned my look with one searching and eager; then:
"If I show you the reason," said he, "and trust you with all my
papers, will you go down to the dock--it's no great distance--
and ask to see Marryat, the chief officer? Perhaps you've sailed
with him?"
"No," I replied guardedly. "I was never in the Patna."
"Never mind. When you give him a letter which I shall write he
will make the necessary arrangements for me to occupy my state-
room to-night. I knew him well," he explained, "in--the old
days. Will you do it, Jim?"
"I'll do it with pleasure," I answered.
"Shake!" said Captain Dan.
We shook hands heartily, and:
"Now I'll show you the reason," he added. "Come upstairs."
Turning, he led the way upstairs to his own room, and wondering
greatly, I followed him in. Never having been in Captain Dan's
apartments I cannot say whether they, like their occupant, had
changed for the better. But I found myself in a room
surprisingly clean and with a note of culture in its appointments
which was even more surprising.
On a couch by the window, wrapped in a fur rug, lay the prettiest
half-caste girl I had ever seen, East or West. Her skin was like
cream rose petals and her abundant hair was of wonderful lustrous
black.
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