"
"If all goes well! Then there is a chance--a chance we may--"
"Oh, we'll be all right." Dan was temperamentally straightforward and
honest, and his assertions were uttered with a tentative inflection
which fell far from carrying conviction to the aroused senses of the
girl.
She stepped closer to Dan.
"May I say something? We are in danger. I have been thinking of
things since you came aboard--since I have been sitting in the saloon
with the men who are different--"
Dan could see that the girl, always evidently one of dominant emotions,
was overwrought, and something told him she had no business to express
the thoughts which filled her mind, that she would be sorry later that
she had spoken. He had interrupted her by a gesture. Now his voice
came cool and even.
"Miss Howland, don't. I've got to take care of this yacht."
A quick sense of just what he meant shot through the girl's mind. She
raised her eyes and looked at him straight. They were blazing, not
altogether with anger. She trembled; she flushed and moved
uncertainly. Then, without a word, she turned and left him.
"A half-foot more water in the last half-hour," reported Arthur.
As Dan turned to Terry, that officer silently pointed to the northward,
where a tall column of black smoke seemed to rise from the waters.
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