Isaac Chantz stood alone, and Bombini now showed eagerness.
"Chantz!" I said; "don't you think it would be healthier to go over to the fife-rail and be good?"He debated the matter not many seconds, resheathed his knife, and complied.
The tang of power! I was minded to let literature get the better of me and read the rascals a lecture; but thank heaven I had sufficient proportion and balance to refrain.
"Rhine!" I said.
He turned his corroded face up to me and blinked in an effort to see.
"As long as Chantz takes your orders, leave him alone. We'll need every hand to work the ship in. As for yourself, send Murphy aft in half an hour and I'll give him the best the medicine-chest affords.
That is all. Go for'ard."
And they shambled away, beaten and dispirited.
"But that man--his face--what happened to him?" Margaret asked of me.
Sad it is to end love with lies. Sadder still is it to begin love with lies. I had tried to hide this one happening from Margaret, and I had failed. It could no longer be hidden save by lying; and so Itold her the truth, told her how and why the gangster had had his face dashed with sulphuric acid by the old steward who knew white men and their ways.
There is little more to write. The mutiny of the Elsinore is over.
The divided crew is ruled by the gangsters, who are as intent on getting their leader into port as I am intent on getting all of them into jail. The first lap of the voyage of the Elsinore draws to a close. Two days, at most, with our present sailing, will bring us into Valparaiso. And then, as beginning a new voyage, the Elsinore will depart for Seattle.
One thing more remains for me to write, and then this strange log of a strange cruise will be complete. It happened only last night. Iam yet fresh from it, and athrill with it and with the promise of it.
Margaret and I spent the last hour of the second dog-watch together at the break of the poop. It was good again to feel the Elsinore yielding to the wind-pressure on her canvas, to feel her again slipping and sliding through the water in an easy sea.
Hidden by the darkness, clasped in each other's arms, we talked love and love plans. Nor am I shamed to confess that I was all for immediacy. Once in Valparaiso, I contended, we would fit out the Elsinore with fresh crew and officers and send her on her way. As for us, steamers and rapid travelling would fetch us quickly home.
Furthermore, Valparaiso being a place where such things as licences and ministers obtained, we would be married ere we caught the fast steamers for home.
But Margaret was obdurate. The Wests had always stood by their ships, she urged; had always brought their ships in to the ports intended or had gone down with their ships in the effort. The Elsinore had cleared from Baltimore for Seattle with the Wests in the high place. The Elsinore would re-equip with officers and men in Valparaiso, and the Elsinore would arrive in Seattle with a West still on board.
"But think, dear heart," I objected. "The voyage will require months. Remember what Henley has said: 'Every kiss we take or give leaves us less of life to live.'"She pressed her lips to mine.
"We kiss," she said.
But I was stupid.
"Oh, the weary, weary months," I complained. "You dear silly," she gurgled. "Don't you understand?""I understand only that it is many a thousand miles from Valparaiso to Seattle," I answered.
"You won't understand," she challenged.
"I am a fool," I admitted. "I am aware of only one thing: I want you. I want you.""You are a dear, but you are very, very stupid," she said, and as she spoke she caught my hand and pressed the palm of it against her cheek. "What do you feel?" she asked.
"Hot cheeks--cheeks most hot."
"I am blushing for what your stupidity compels me to say," she explained. "You have already said that such things as licences and ministers obtain in Valparaiso . . . and . . . and, well . . . ""You mean . . . ?" I stammered.
"Just that," she confirmed.
"The honeymoon shall be on the Elsinore from Valparaiso all the way to Seattle?" I rattled on.
"The many thousands of miles, the weary, weary months," she teased in my own intonations, until I stifled her teasing with my lips.
End
