The girl laughed. "I wouldn't strain the supply of collars for worlds. I only want you to take me two days on from here and drop me at this factory again on the way back."
The tint of Captain Image's vermilion face deepened to plum color. He scented irony, and his touchy Welsh temper bubbled up into view. "Miss," he said, "when I pull my anchors out of Smooth River mud in ten hours from now, I go out on the flood across the bar, and as you must know I walk in and do the civil in Water Street, Liverpool, before I smell the stink of these particular mud banks again."
She slipped a plump firm hand on his white drill sleeve. "Won't you ask me into the chart house, Captain, and send Brass-Pan for some tea? I'm absolutely dying for tea. And you can have a cocktail. I've got a long story I want to tell you. There's cargo waiting for you, Captain, up a creek that opens off Smooth River which you've never been up, and which I think will pretty well fill the M'poso without your troubling to call anywhere else."
Captain Image's face cooled to vermilion again, and puckered into a smile in spite of himself. He even went so far as to pat the fingers that rested on his arm. "By Crumbs, Miss, I'd ordered them to boil up that tea when I saw you shoot out of the factory creek in your surf boat, and till you reminded me, I'd clean forgotten it. And here you've been standing and yarning to me on the front door step all the time. They'll call the M'poso a dry boat with a vengeance if this tale gets about. I shall be chaffed to death over it. Come up on top."
Mr. Balgarnie saw them ascending the ladder, and rushed into the chart house and pulled down three photographs that had been fastened on the wall with drawing pins since Miss Kate O'Neill's departure. He was thumped on the back by his grateful skipper who caught him in the act of pocketing them.
"Balgarnie, me lad," said Captain Image, "you'll have to keep that hard collar of yours bent for two days longer. You'll be pleased to hear that Miss Kate's not going to throw us over yet. Just you go and see the chief steward and the cook and ask them what they've got left in the refrigerator. And I want you to break the rule of the ship, and make all the other passengers jealous, and dine at my table in honor of the occasion. Come in, Miss, and please take the settee. You'll find this cushion soft and free from mildew."
Kate smiled gratefully on them both. "What dear, good people you are. And I made sure you would detest me, Captain, when I tell you I want you to change from your usual routine."
Captain Image's face stiffened.
"Even though it is to get all your holds full of cargo which you would never have touched if it had not been for a hint that just came to me an hour ago."
"We carry mails, you know," said Image doubtfully, "and there's a scheduled time for call at the various points, and a bad time for being late. Bad——"