wrote at a little table a note to
the mate instructing him to get everything ready for dropping down the
river next day. I couldn't face my ship. Well! she had a clever sort of
skipper and no mistake--poor thing! What a horrid mess! I took my head
between my hands. At times the obviousness of my innocence would reduce
me to despair. What had I done? If I had done something to bring about
the situation I should at least have learned not to do it again. But I
felt guiltless to the point of imbecility. The room was empty yet;
only Schomberg prowled round me goggle-eyed and with a sort of awed
respectful curiosity. No doubt he had set the story going himself; but
he was a good-hearted chap, and I am really persuaded he participated in
all my troubles. He did what he could for me. He ranged aside the heavy
match-stand, set a chair straight, pushed a spittoon slightly with
his foot--as you show small attentions to a friend under a great
sorrow--sighed, and at last, unable to hold his tongue:

"Well! I warned you, captain. That's what comes of running your head
against Mr. Falk. Man'll stick at nothing."

I sat without stirring, and after surveying me with a sort of
commiseration in his eyes he burst out in a hoarse whisper: "But for
a fine lump of a girl, she's a fine lump of a girl." He made a loud
smacking noise with his thick lips. "The finest lump of a girl that I
ever..." he was going on with great unction, but for some reason or
other broke off. I fancied myself throwing something at his head. "I
don't blame you, captain. Hang me if I do," he said with a patronising
air.

"Thank you," I said resignedly. It was no use fighting against this
false fate. I don't know even if I was sure myself where the truth of
the matter began. The conviction that it would end disastrously had been
driven into me by all the successive shocks my sense of security had
received. I began to ascribe an extraordinary potency to agents in
themselves powerless. It was as if Schomberg's baseless gossip had the
power to bring about the thing itself or the abstract enmity of Falk
could put my ship ashore.

I have already explained how fatal this last would have been. For my
further action, my youth, my inexperience, my very real concern for the
health of my crew must be my excuse. The action itself, when it came,
was purely impulsive. It was set in movement quite undiplomatically and
simply by Falk's appearance in the doorway.

The room was fu