“He can’t get away, Mr. Stewart. Release his arms.”
So Jerome sprang up, bloody and sweaty, and stood panting. The heroic flash of melodrama was over.
And the Captain said: “We’ll take Tsuda aboard with us tonight for safe-keeping; in the morning we’ll all feel more rational. Mrs. King insists upon staying beside her husband, but we can’t leave her without protection. Sargeant—”
But Jerome broke in: “I’m staying, please. We knew each other once. We lived just around the corner from each other. I’d rather not go back to the ship tonight.” It seemed a magnificent moment.
Utterbourne stared at him, and, his lips trembling a little with devious mirth, he muttered, in almost a tone of quizzical exaltation: “Will wonders never cease?” After that there fell a pause, and then, under the stars, like the first welcome note of a returning serenity after much storm, they heard the Captain gently humming his favourite snatch of Macdowell.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
WEDDING BELLS IN THE OFFING
I
Strange forces were at work in the world; but the sun came up still and flashing out of the sea, and the birds had business of their own to attend to.