repeated, mentally. "She will sit
in the cuddy. She will sleep in my berth. Well, I'm not ashamed of the
brig. By heavens--no! I shall keep away: never come near them as I've
promised. Now there's nothing more to say. I've told her everything at
once. There's nothing more."

He felt a heaviness in his burning breast, in all his limbs as if the
blood in his veins had become molten lead.

"I shall get the yacht off. Three, four days--no, a week."

He found he couldn't do it under a week. It occurred to him he would see
her every day till the yacht was afloat. No, he wouldn't intrude, but he
was master and owner of the brig after all. He didn't mean to skulk like
a whipped cur about his own decks.

"It'll be ten days before the schooner is ready. I'll take every scrap
of ballast out of her. I'll strip her--I'll take her lower masts out
of her, by heavens! I'll make sure. Then another week to fit
out--and--goodbye. Wish I had never seen them. Good-bye--forever. Home's
the place for them. Not for me. On another coast she would not have
listened. Ah, but she is a woman--every inch of her. I shall shake
hands. Yes. I shall take her hand--just before she goes. Why the devil
not? I am master here after all--in this brig--as good as any one--by
heavens, better than any one--better than any one on earth."

He heard Shaw walk smartly forward above his head hailing:

"What's that--a boat?"

A voice answered indistinctly.

"One of my boats is back," thought Lingard. "News about Daman perhaps.
I don't care if he kicks. I wish he would. I would soon show her I can
fight as well as I can handle the brig. Two praus. Only two praus. I
wouldn't mind if there were twenty. I would sweep 'em off the sea--I
would blow 'em out of the water--I would make the brig walk over them.
'Now,' I'd say to her, 'you who are not afraid, look how it's done!'"

He felt light. He had the sensation of being whirled high in the midst
of an uproar and as powerless as a feather in a hurricane. He shuddered
profoundly. His arms hung down, and he stood before the table staring
like a man overcome by some fatal intelligence.

Shaw, going into the waist to receive what he thought was one of the
brig's boats, came against Carter making his way aft hurriedly.

"Hullo! Is it you again?" he said, swiftly, barring the way.

"I come from the yacht," began Carter with some impatience.

"Where else could you come from?" said Shaw. "And what might you want
now?