"
"No," said the girl: "I knew--all the time, that--"
Whatever she meant, Rudolph could only guess; but it was true, he
thought, that she had never once spoken as though the present meeting
were not possible, here or somewhere. Recalling this, he suddenly but
quietly stepped away aft, to sit beside the steersman, and smile in
the darkness.
The two voices flowed on. He did not listen, but watched the phosphorus
welling soft and turbulent in the wake, and far off, in glimpses of the
tropic light, the great Dragon weltering on the face of the waters. The
shape glimmered forth, died away, like a prodigy. How ran the verse?
"Ich lieg' und besitze.
Lass mich schlafen."
"And yet," thought the young man, "I have one pearl from his hoard."
That girl was right: like Siegfried tempered in the grisly flood, the
raw boy was turning into a man, seasoned and invulnerable.
Heywood was calling to him:--
"You must go Home with us. Do you hear? I've made a wonderful plan--with
the captain's fortune! Dear old Kneebone."
A small white heap across the deck began to rise.
"How often," complained a voice blurred with sleep, "how often must I
tell ye--wake me, unless the ship--chart's all--Good God!"
At the captain's cry, those who lay in darkness under the thatched roof
began to mutter, to rise, and grope out into the trembling light, with
sleepy cries of joy.
Pages:
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284