A Master of Craft | Page 2

sure," said Fraser. "I hope I should."
"Do you mean to say," said Miss Tyrell, severely, "that if I fell into the river here, for instance, you wouldn't jump in and try to save me?"
"Of course I should." said Fraser, hotly. "I should jump in after you if I couldn't swim a stroke."
Miss Tyrell, somewhat taken aback, murmured her gratification.
"I should go in after you," continued the mate who was loath to depart from the subject, "if it was blowing a gale, and the sea full of sharks."
"What a blessing it is there are no sharks round our coast," said Miss Tyrell, in somewhat of a hurry to get away from the mate's heroism. "Have you ever seen one?"
"Saw them in the Indian Ocean when I was an apprentice," replied Fraser.
"You've been on foreign-going ships then?" said the girl. "I wonder you gave it up for this."
"This suits me better," said Fraser; "my father's an old man, and he wanted me home. I shall have a little steamer he's got an interest in as soon as her present skipper goes, so it's just as well for me to know these waters."
In this wise they sat talking until evening gave way to night, and the deck of the Foam was obscured in shadow. Lamps were lit on the wharves, and passing craft hung out their side-lights. The girl rose to her feet.
"I won't wait any longer; I must be going," she said.
"He may be back at any moment," urged the mate.
"No, I'd better go, thank you," replied the girl; "it's getting late. I don't like going home alone."
"I'll come with you, if you'll let me," said the mate, eagerly.
"All the way?" said Miss Tyrell, with the air of one bargaining.
"Of course," said Fraser.
"Well, I'll give him another half-hour, then," said the girl, calmly. "Shall we go down to the cabin? It's rather chilly up here now."
The mate showed her below, and, lighting the lamp, took a seat opposite and told her a few tales of the sea, culled when he was an apprentice, and credulous of ear. Miss Tyrell retaliated with some told her by her father, from which Fraser was able to form his own opinion of that estimable mariner. The last story was of a humourous nature, and the laughter which ensued grated oddly on the ear of the sturdy, good-looking seaman who had just come on board. He stopped at the companion for a moment listening in amazement, and then, hastily descending, entered the cabin.
"Poppy!" he cried. "Why, I've been waiting up at the Wheelers' for you for nearly a couple of hours."
"I must have missed you," said Miss Tyrell, serenely. "Annoying, isn't it?"
The master of the Foam said it was, and seemed from his manner to be anxious to do more justice to the subject than that.
"I didn't dream you'd come down here," he said, at length.
"No, you never invited me, so I came without," said the girl softly; "it's a dear little schooner, and I like it very much. I shall come often."
A slight shade passed over Captain Flower's face, but he said nothing.
"You must take me back now," said Miss Tyrell. "Good-bye, Mr. Fraser."
She held out her hand to the mate, and giving a friendly pressure, left the cabin, followed by Flower.
The mate let them get clear of the ship, and then, clambering on to the jetty, watched them off the wharf, and, plunging his hands into his pockets, whistled softly.
"Poppy Tyrell," he said to himself, slowly. "Poppy Tyrell! I wonder why the skipper has never mentioned her. I wonder why she took his arm. I wonder whether she knows that he's engaged to be married."
Deep in thought he paced slowly up and down the wharf, and then wandered listlessly round the piled-up empties and bags of sugar in the open floor beneath the warehouse. A glance through the windows of the office showed him the watchman slumbering peacefully by the light of a solitary gas-jet, and he went back to the schooner and gazed at the dark water and the dim shapes of the neighbouring craft in a vein of gentle melancholy. He walked to the place where her chair had been, and tried to conjure up the scene again; then, becoming uncertain as to the exact spot, went down to the cabin, where, the locker being immovable, no such difficulty presented itself. He gazed his fill, and then, smoking a meditative pipe, turned in and fell fast asleep.
He was awakened suddenly from a dream of rescuing a small shark surrounded by a horde of hungry Poppies, by the hurried and dramatic entrance of Captain Fred Flower. The captain's eyes were wild and his face harassed, and he unlocked the door of his state-room and stood with the handle of it in his hand before