Jupiter Lights Part 24

Ten minutes later she opened her door and went out.

The swinging lamp in the saloon was turned down, the place was empty; she crossed the short half-circle which led to the stern-deck, and stepped outside. There was no moon, but a magnificent aurora borealis was quivering across the sky, now an even band, now sending out long flakes of light which waved to and fro. Before she looked at the splendid heavens, however, she had scanned the deck. There was no one there. She sat down on one of the benches.

Presently she heard a step, some one was approaching. There was a gleam of a cigar; a man's figure; Paul.

"Is that you? I thought there would be no one here," she said.

"We are the only pa.s.sengers," Paul answered. "But, as there are six of us, you cannot quite control us all."

"I control no one." ("Not even myself!" she thought.)

"You will have your wish, though you ought not to; despots shouldn't be humored. You will have the place to yourself in a few moments, because I shall turn in soon--the time to finish this cigar--if you don't mind the smoke?"

"No, I don't mind," she answered, a chill of disappointment creeping slowly over her.

"Hasn't it been jolly?" Paul said, after a moment: he had seated himself on a stool near her bench. "I do love to be out like this, away from all bother."

"Do you? I thought you didn't."

The words were no sooner out than she feared he would say, "Why?" And then her answer (for of course she must say something; she could not let him believe that she had had no idea)--her answer would show that she had been thinking about him.

But apparently Paul was not curious, he did not ask. "It's very good for Cicely too; I wish I could take her oftener," he went on. "Her promise to stay on here weighs upon her heavily. I don't know whether she would have kept her word with me or not; but you know, of course, that Ferdie himself has written, telling her that she must stay?"

"No."

"She didn't tell you?"

"She tells me nothing!" replied Eve. "If she would only allow it, I would go down there to-morrow. I could be the nurse; I could be the housekeeper; anything."

"You're not needed down there, they have plenty of people; we want you here, to see to her."

"One or the other of them;--I hope they will always permit it. I can be of use, perhaps, about Jack."

"You are too humble, Miss Bruce; sometimes you seem to be almost on your knees to Cicely, as though you had done her some great wrong. The truth is the other way; she ought to be on her knees to you. You brought her off when she hadn't the force to come herself, poor little woman! And you did it boldly and quickly, just as a man would have done it. Now that I know you, I can imagine the whole thing."

"Never speak of that time; never," murmured Eve.

"Well, I won't, then, if you don't like it. But you will let me say how glad I am that you intend to remain with her, at least for a while. You will see from this that I don't believe a word of her story about your dislike for my brother."

"There is nothing I would not do for him!"

"Yes, you like to do things; to be active. They tell me that you are fond of having your own way; but that is the very sort of person they need--a woman like you, strong and cool. After a while you would really like Ferdie, you couldn't help it. And he would like you."

"It is impossible that he should like me." She rose quickly.

"You're going in? Well, fifteen hours in the open air _are_ an opiate.

Should you care to go forward first for a moment? I can show you a place where you can look down below; there are two hundred emigrants on board; Norwegians."

She hesitated, drawing her shawl about her.

"Take my arm; I can guide you better so. It's dark, and I know the ins and outs."

She put her hand upon his arm.

He drew it further through. "I don't want you to be falling down!"

They went forward along the narrow side. Conversation was not easy, they had to make their way round various obstacles by sense of feeling; still Eve talked; she talked hastily, irrelevantly. When she came to the end of her breath she found herself speaking this sentence: "I like your friend Mr. Hollis so much!"

"Yes, Kit is a wonderful fellow; he has extraordinary talent." He spoke in perfect good faith.

"Oh, extraordinary?" said Eve, abandoning Hollis with feminine versatility, as an obscure feeling, which she did not herself recognize, rose within her.

"If you don't think so, it's because you don't know him. He is an excellent cla.s.sical scholar, to begin with; he has read everything under the sun; he is an inventor, a geologist, and one of the best lawyers in the state, in spite of his notion about not practising."

"You don't add that he is an excellent auctioneer?"

"No; that he is not, I am sorry to say; he is a very bad one."

"Yet it is the occupation which he has himself selected. Does that show such remarkable talent? Now you, with your mining--" She stopped.

"I didn't select mining," answered Paul, roughly, "and I'm not particularly good at it; I took what I could get, that's all."

They had now reached the forward deck. Two men belonging to the crew were sitting on a pile of rope; above, patrolling the small upper platform, was the officer in charge; they could not see him, but they could hear his step. To get to the bow, they walked as it were up hill; they reached the sharp point, and looked down over the high, smooth sides which were cutting the deep water so quietly. Eve's glance turned to the splendid aurora quivering and shining above.

"This _T. P. Mayhew_ is an excellent boat," remarked Paul, who was still looking over the sides. "But, as to that, all the N. T. boats are good."

"N. T.?"

"Northern Transportation." He gave a slight yawn.

"Tell me about your iron," said Eve, quickly. ("Oh, he will go in! he is going in!" was her thought.)

"It isn't mine--I wish it was; I'm only manager."

"I don't mean the mine here; I mean your Clay County iron."

"What do you know about that?" said Paul, surprised.

"Mr. Hollis told me; he said you had declined an excellent offer, and he was greatly concerned about it; he told me the reasons why he did not agree with you."

"It must have been interesting! But that all happened some time ago; didn't you know that he had come round to my view of it, after all?"

"No."

"Yes, round he came; it took him eight days. He has got such a look-on-all-sides head that, when he starts out to investigate, he tramps all over the sky; if he intends to go north, he goes east, west, and south first, so as to make sure that these are not the right directions. However, on the eighth day in he came, squeezing himself through a crack, as usual, and explained to me at length the reasons why it was better, on the whole, to decline that offer. He had thought the matter out to its remotest contingencies--some of them went over into the next century! It was remarkably clear and well argued; and of course very satisfactory to me."

"But in the meantime you had already declined, hadn't you?"

"Yes. But it was a splendid piece of following up. I declare, I always feel my inferiority when I am with people who can really talk--talk like that!"