ghly. "You don't know
what you are doing." She confronted the sombre anger of his eyes--"But I
must," she asserted with heat.--"Must," he mused, noticing that she was
only half a head less tall than himself. "Must! Oh, yes. Of course, you
must. Must! Yes. But I don't want to hear. Give! What can you give? You
may have all the treasures of the world for all I know. No! You can't
give anything. . . ."

"I was thinking of your difficulty when I spoke," she interrupted. His
eyes wandered downward following the line of her shoulder.--"Of me--of
me!" he repeated.

All this was said almost in whispers. The sound of slow footsteps was
heard on deck above their heads. Lingard turned his face to the open
skylight.

"On deck there! Any wind?"

All was still for a moment. Somebody above answered in a leisurely tone:

"A steady little draught from the northward."

Then after a pause added in a mutter:

"Pitch dark."

"Aye, dark enough," murmured Lingard. He must do something. Now. At
once. The world was waiting. The world full of hopes and fear.
What should he do? Instead of answering that question he traced the
ungleaming coils of her twisted hair and became fascinated by a stray
lock at her neck. What should he do? No one to leave his brig to. The
voice that had answered his question was Carter's voice. "He is hanging
about keeping his eye on me," he said to Mrs. Travers. She shook her
head and tried to smile. The man above coughed discreetly. "No," said
Lingard, "you must understand that you have nothing to give."

The man on deck who seemed to have lingered by the skylight was heard
saying quietly, "I am at hand if you want me, Mrs. Travers." Hassim and
Immada looked up. "You see," exclaimed Lingard. "What did I tell you?
He's keeping his eye on me! On board my own ship. Am I dreaming? Am I in
a fever? Tell him to come down," he said after a pause. Mrs. Travers
did so and Lingard thought her voice very commanding and very sweet.
"There's nothing in the world I love so much as this brig," he went on.
"Nothing in the world. If I lost her I would have no standing room on
the earth for my feet. You don't understand this. You can't."

Carter came in and shut the cabin door carefully. He looked with
serenity at everyone in turn.

"All quiet?" asked Lingard.

"Quiet enough if you like to call it so," he answered. "But if you only
put your head outside the door you'll hear them all on the quarter-deck
snoring against eac