full as my heart was of love and self, I could not but lay a hand on poor Ready’s shoulders.
“God bless you, old boy!” I said to him.
He turned a white face that gave me half an instant’s pause.
“It’s all over with me this time,” he said. “But, I say, I was right about the cargo?”
And I heard a chuckle as I reached the ladder; but Ready was no longer in my mind; even Eva was driven out of it, as I stood aghast on the top-most rung.
CHAPTER III
TO THE WATER’S EDGE
It was not the new panic
nightmare throng, I took Ready by the arm.
“The skipper’s a brute,” said I, “but he’s the right brute in the right place tonight, Ready !”
“I hope he may be,” was the reply. “But we were off our course this afternoon; and we were off it again during the concert, as sure as we’re not on it now.”
His